May 15, 2007     Photos from the Plainedge Budget Vote

April 11, 2005     The Final Budget presented for Vote on May 16, 2006

April 11, 2006     Draft Proposed Budget Working Document

April 11, 2006     Detail of Estimated Tax Impact with Final Assessed Values

April 11, 2006  Proposed Budget 2006 - 2007

April 06, 2005

Dear Parents,

April 04 2006

April 04, 2006

Dear Parents,
 
I just wanted to share with you some interesting items brought to light at tonight’s budget workshop.
 
1)     The BOE has decided to utilize $1,000,000 dollars of our Fund Balance from last year’s budget to offset the tax increases to our community.
2)     We have received additional state aid from Albany amounting to $953,887
3)     Each tax payer will be sent a $300 STAR tax relief check directly to there home
4)     MS Baseball is still not part of the proposed budget.
5)     Estimated Tax Impact to the Community per average household
 
Factors outside of Plainedge’s Control                                 $536 / year
General Operating Costs                                                           $176 / Year
Restoration of Programs 05/06 Budget                                 $167 / Year
Estimated Impact of Fund Balance Contribution              ($139 / Year)
Estimated Impact of Additional State Aid                             ($119 / Year)
STAR Refund Check paid directly to taxpayer                   ($300 / Year)
 
Estimated Average Tax Increase per Household               $322 / Year
 
The estimated Average Tax increase of $322 / year is the equivalent of
 
            1) $26.79 / Month         
            2) $0.88 / Day              
 
SENIOR CITIZENS WILL BE RECEIVING AN ADDITIONAL STAR REFUND CHECK FROM THE ENHANCED STAR PROGRAM IN THE AMOUNT OF $228/ YEAR. This means that the Senior Citizens will only have to pay $94.00 more per year to pass this budget.
 
Final Meeting Date
            April 5th , 2006             7 pm                Board Room                Budget Meeting
 
There are still a couple of items which are open for discussion. 1) Varsity Track & Field, 2) All Clubs in the district.
If any of you have children that participate in these programs and do not want these programs cut….I would recommend that you come to tomorrow nights meeting.
 
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks so much. I think we can all say that most of us can invest a $0.88 / day (Seniors = $0.62 / day) to ensure the Plainedge Community Thrives.  I think our community is worth $0.88 / day to ensure that our school district and property values stay at the levels we are accustomed to.   Let me know your thoughts.
 
Sincerely,
Joe Amalfitano
 
PS: Please take a look at the list of items which WILL be cut if the budget FAILS.

        ON MAY 16^TH

April 04, 2006

10.32%

Reductions from Draft II:Summer School-$62K
Technology-$112K
BOE Training-$2.5K
Comm. Newsletter-$3K
Early Buses-$1.5K
Monitors-$15K
Renegotiated copier lease-$33K

Total cuts from Draft II- $229,405K

Additions to Draft II
Elementary Drama Advisor's (3)-$6.4K
Assistant Elementary Drama Advisor's (3)-$4K
Student Council Co-Advisor (3)- $4K

Total Additions to Draft II: $14,452

Presuto and Raymond (of C-P-R fame) asked for clarification on specific line items and asked some hard questions and got some hard answers back.

A flyer was given out explaining the components of the estimated $738 tax increase and its impact on the average homeowner :

  $738
- $119 additional State Aid
- $139 Fund Balance Contribution of $1,000,000
=$480 Est. tax Increase on a average home assessed at $422K

The equivalent of $40 a month or $1.32 a day.

A lively and respectful discussion followed with the community (well attended, about 120 or so) voicing their concerns and the Board and Dr. Richman being receptive to hearing the parents pleas. (As opposed to last time when they got a spanking). No real decisions were made by the BOE at this time and they agreed to "digest" the answers to some of their questions, as well as, reflect on the communities input and pick up the discussion at tonights workshop.

April 04, 2006

New York Times Article

March 26, 2006

Long Island

Anguish Before Another Big Test

By FAIZA AKHTAR

STUNG by a record-setting wave of budget defeats in 2005, school districts across the Island are digging in to the budget process early this year.

Especially in the 21 districts now on bare-bones contingency budgets, the mission for administrators and school boards is twofold: to propose a budget and tax rate that voters can stomach, and to win back enough of their trust to avoid a budget defeat at the polls on May 16.

The public hearings, information sessions and workshops have already begun. And the mood among parents and voters at some of these meetings has been ugly. But not always the same species of ugly.

Public sentiments in the Plainedge and Sachem districts, both trying to climb out of the austerity hole, offer a study in contrasts — one simmering in anger, the other sunk in despair.

After its budget went down to defeat twice last year, the Plainedge district in southeastern Nassau made headlines by wiping out all extracurricular sports to save money, only to have shocked parents and students mount a community-wide fund-raising effort to restore the sports programs. Using bake sales and car washes, raffles and appeals to local businesses, volunteers raised almost $500,000 in two months.

But it was clear at a budget workshop meeting at the district's central office in North Massapequa on March 14 that for many in the community, that energetic reaction has given way to resignation and despondency over the district's continuing financial squeeze. Parents attending the meeting nodded silently, some of them in tears, as officials discussed a long list of cutbacks they are proposing in next year's budget.

"There is no way we are going to raise those funds again this year," said John Hanrahan, 47, a retired police officer whose son is due to graduate from high school in June. "It's just not going to happen. That was a one-time deal."

Pervading the meeting was a feeling that, with mandatory costs rising, state aid failing to keep pace, and many residents unable or unwilling to engage themselves in the district's problems, Plainedge may never recover from last year's budget debacle.

"It's the same 30 or so people who show up over and over again," said Dana Dougherty, 39, who has two children in the district's elementary schools. "Our biggest problem is lack of community awareness, despite all these meetings. Plainedge just isn't a community."

Ms. Dougherty and another mother at the meeting wept as the board outlined proposed spending cuts in the grade school, including the end of all club programs and extracurricular activities. The district's business adviser said the step would save about $57,000, an amount Mr. Hanrahan likened to a spoon on the Titanic.

The Plainedge board said it plans to propose an overall budget of $63.6 million for next year. Some of the eliminated sports programs and clubs in the junior high and high schools would be reinstated, but not all. The budget represents a 10.7 percent increase from this year's contingency spending; without the cutbacks detailed at the meeting, the increase would have been 13.6 percent.

"People don't seem to understand that many of these things are mandated by New York State, yet paid for by us residents," said Lisa Bailey, who has three children in Plainedge schools. "If more people would come to these meetings, then they would understand what is really going on."

Parents at the budget meeting said they trusted the Plainedge board to do the best it could for the community, even though none of its current members has a professional background in finance. "How can we knock what they do, when they are the few people in this community who are making an effort to care?" said Nancy Giris, 41, who has three school-age children.

Ms. Giris said she was disappointed that the board did not heed her repeated calls to spare the elementary schools from the brunt of the new budget cuts. But the board members are not the villains, she said, echoing a widespread view at the meeting.

"Last year there was cynicism and frustration," she said. "But this year we have just reached a point of desperation."

John A. Richman, the district superintendent, told attendees at the budget workshop several times that a second year of budget defeats and austerity would do deep and lasting damage to the district and the community. Even so, many in the audience said they thought voters would probably reject any spending increase above the austerity level of about 4 percent for the coming year.

"It's not the people in this room who will vote the budget down," Ms. Dougherty said. "It's the ones who don't come that will."

Ed Parlow, 51, the father of two Plainedge students, echoed the bleak assessment. "This district seems to run the 99 yards and fumble on the 1-yard line, because it can't get this community to vote yes," Mr. Parlow said. " 'Death of a school district,' that's what your headline should be."

Optimism was just as hard to find when residents of the sprawling Sachem district, with 18 schools and 15,000 students in central Suffolk, gathered March 9 at Seneca Middle School in Holbrook to discuss next year's proposed budget with the board. But instead of gloom, the atmosphere was electric with hostility.

Asked in 2005 to approve double-digit tax increases for the second straight year, Sachem residents voted no by overwhelming margins. And judging by the mood at the meeting, many in the district remain deeply suspicious of the board, even though its 2006-7 proposal called for an increase of just 4.87 percent over this year's contingency budget.

(After the meeting, the board decided to cut the proposal further, to an increase of 3.78 percent, less than the state would allow in a contingency budget.)

ONLY a handful of people stood up to speak publicly at the March 9 meeting about the board's proposed budget, and it appeared that most of those who did were candidates for board seats or were affiliated with a tax-protest group.

But the anger and distrust felt by residents was evident in the rolled eyes and scornful whispers in the audience when a member of the district's community budget advisory board rose to praise the administration for its hard work on the budget.

Board members at the meeting refused to be drawn into back-and-forth discussion with audience members, saying they were there to listen, not to argue.

Barbara McNamara, 39, who has three children in Sachem schools, asked the board repeatedly, "Where are we cutting, outside of the academic day?" but got no response.

The district posts minutes and audio recordings of board meetings and copies of written reports, including the budget proposal, on its Web site, and it has scheduled more than a dozen public meetings to discuss the budget. Still, several residents said the district did not do a good job of informing the public about decisions regarding their children's education.

"They have created this false aura of openness that in reality doesn't exist," Ms. McNamara said. "Their response to my simple question today was met with such condescending remarks that if I would have continued to press for an answer, I am sure they would have gotten much worse."

Steven Hellreich, 44, the father of two Sachem students, said, "This board is too cozy with the administration now, and they have successfully created a blockade against us parents who want more information."

Mr. Hellreich said that he and others suspected that political rivalries and tensions within the board may also have played a role in last year's budget debacle as well. Three seats on the nine-member school board are up for election and are being contested this year.

Ms. McNamara said her biggest frustration with the district was the mixed and conflicting signals it had been sending about the impact of budget constraints.

"At the last meeting, the board only suggested program cuts," she said. "But guidance counselors began advising the students that the cuts were final, and then tonight, the board re-instated those programs. What I want to know is, how do we go from a suggestion to a final decision without notifying the public officially?"

Charles Murphy, superintendent of the Sachem district, said in an interview last week that people sometimes misunderstand the budget process, which is still in the discussion phase. "Nothing we say now is firm and done until March 30, when we put our name to it," he said.

Budget priorities are also a sore point in Sachem, as in many districts. But in Sachem, known for its large array of sports programs and activities, parents are complaining not that sports have been cut too much, as in Plainedge, but that they have not been cut enough.

The district had 214 teams last year, even while on a contingency budget, and it has not proposed dropping any; two ninth-grade teams that were cut last year are to be reinstated. But the new budget would eliminate six speech teachers and scrap an honors ninth-grade social studies program and an accelerated 12th-grade math course.

Mr. Murphy described those steps as "programmatic changes" to help the district run more efficiently.

Deborah O'Rourke, 43, a business owner with two school-age children in the Sachem district, said she was disheartened by the board's choices. "If you want to play a game, then this is the district to be in," Ms. O'Rourke said. "But if you should want to excel in the academic arena, then you are pretty much on your own."