May 29, 2005
School Budgets: Bell Rings for Round 2
By JENNIFER MEDINA and LINDA SASLOW, NYTIMES, May 29, 2005

NOW what?

For the second consecutive year, voters across the New York suburbs were exceptionally brutal to local school budgets on May 17, the "Super Tuesday" of school voting. In an ordinary year, rejections can be counted on one hand, but this year, 45 districts on Long Island and 6 in Westchester, in wealthy and working-class towns alike, sent budgets down to defeat, some of them by huge margins.

Under state law, that's not necessarily the last word. School districts are allowed the electoral version of a playground do-over: a budget revote before the new school fiscal year begins on July 1.

In the aftermath of Super Tuesday, school boards and superintendents were facing the question of whether to try it, and whether to modify the budget for the second vote or present the same one again. Pro-budget parents' groups faced the challenge of turning out more "yes" voters, while tax-protest groups hoped to hold their majorities together for a second round.

Historically, nearly all budgets have passed on the second round, but then again, they rarely failed on the first round. The sharp departure in the last two years from the historical pro-schools voting pattern complicates the picture for school officials.

With local problems and scandals appearing to drive the vote in some districts while general discontent over property tax increases seem to be the main factor in others, the do-over decision is not an easy one.

Take Glen Cove. Jerry Cicchelli, the superintendent of schools, went through the revote mill last year, spending much of last May trying to figure out what could be cut from the rejected first-round budget. Drop sports in the middle schools or reduce funds for technology? Lay off some staff members or stop providing transportation for sports teams?

When voters rejected the second budget as well, there were no more choices - all of those things had to go. Without an approved budget, the district went on austerity for the year, limited by state law to the previous year's spending plus about 3 percent.

This year, Glen Cove voters rejected the budget again, presenting Mr. Cicchelli with the same questions.

"Our proposed budget was tight, tight, tight," Mr. Cicchelli said. "So now we have to ask ourselves, if we have a second vote, can we win the support of those who voted against the budget? And what damage does a second vote do if it goes down, in terms of the ego structure of our district?"

Though Glen Cove's proposed spending increase this year was relatively modest - 6.8 percent - and the budget was defeated only narrowly, the district has decided to forgo a second vote and go straight to austerity.

Other districts across the region said they also tried to hold down their budget increases this year, knowing that while the schools still enjoy strong community support, voters are increasingly fed up with soaring property taxes. Still, one-third of Long Island districts, some with big increases and some with small, suffered budget defeats on May 17, the same as last year.

Many of those districts are now struggling with their options. The most common strategy in the past has been a revote on a revised budget, and that pattern seems to be holding among districts that have made decisions this year. Others are offering the same budgets again, saying they have already been cut to the bone. And many districts are still talking about what to do.

School officials say whatever the issues were in the first budget vote, the second one is usually about the threat of austerity. "These boards have to go out to their residents and explain in very clear terms what that would mean," said Timothy G. Kremer, the executive director of the New York State School Boards Association. "They have to show that these are not scare tactics. It's the reality. As soon as people realize what kind of services they will lose, they usually vote in favor on the second round."

Nine districts on Long Island, including Glen Cove, were on austerity this year.

An air of panic can creep into the way school districts and pro-budget advocates discuss austerity. They warn that extracurricular activities are often the first things to go, even if they have been in place for years. They tick off lists of possible cuts in school busing, music and art programs and sports; they talk about layoffs and increased class sizes.

Those arguments don't usually get far with the hard core of consistent "no" voters in many districts, who have complained for years about what they see as excessive salaries, inefficiency and waste in the schools, and who often view the vulnerable programs as dispensable luxuries.

Many school advocates believe that retired people and others without school-age children are the main source of "no" votes. Laura Mogul, a parent and former school board member in Port Washington, where the budget was defeated this year, said she had seen dozens of people registering to vote at the polls who all gave the same address, that of a newly built senior housing project. "They're people who have no history and no vested interest in the schools, and for them it is just a tax bill," Ms. Mogul said. "It seems reasonable to guess who voted 'yes' and who didn't."

But she said many formerly reliable "yes" voters seemed to have changed sides as well. "Our parent vote is definitely not as easy as it used to be," Ms. Mogul said. "They are starting to ask, where's the price-value relationship? The higher you shove the price, the harder you have to work to prove the value."

Dr. Lee Weitzman is an example. His two children graduated from schools in the Hewlett-Woodmere district, and he said he had always been pleased with the schools and voted in favor of the budget, until this year. The 9.6-percent spending increase the district proposed was just too far above the 7.2-percent average on the rest of Long Island, he said.

"This is not a reflection of the school district, but a matter of financial responsibility," Dr. Weitzman said. "The district has an obligation to pare down the budget before submitting it again to the community."

Port Washington voters rejected their budget by a 5.5-percent margin, and Hewlett-Woodmere by 21 percent, but in a number of districts, the vote was much closer. New Hyde Park, Huntington and Northport rejected their budgets by margins of less than 2 percent, and in Edgemont in Westchester, the difference was just 7 votes. That has led some school officials to conclude that voter perceptions, and not the budgets themselves, may have been the problem.

"We believe that there was a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding and that many people in the community didn't understand what they were voting on," said George Duffy, school superintendent in Seaford, where a budget calling for a 7 percent spending increase failed by about 500 votes.

Just before the vote, Mr. Duffy said, a resident called him to ask whether a defeated budget would mean that teachers would not receive a raise. The answer was no: Raises specified in the teachers' contract are binding whether the budget passes or not.

Mr. Duffy said he told the caller that instead of canceling raises, a budget defeat "would mean that we might have to cut teachers, and that would increase class size."

"Our budget was a no-fat budget, and to cut anything more would impact on our staff and our educational programs," he said.

Some districts have well-organized pro-budget advocates who leap into action for revotes. In the Tarrytowns district in Westchester, where the budget failed by 79 votes, Katherine Swibold helps run a private foundation that raises money for the schools. She said past efforts by parents had been successful in turning out "yes" votes.

"When we've passed other things, we did a blitz," she said. "We had lawn signs, we had posters on telephone poles, train stations, anywhere we could. We made sure that nobody could forget what was happening. If we want anything to pass, we've got to do that."

Without exit polls, it is impossible to know just what prompts residents to vote against budgets. But there is wide agreement that frustration with years of tax increases lay at the heart of this year's rejections. Long Island homeowners pay property taxes to many municipal authorities, from counties and towns down to local sidewalk districts, but they usually get to vote on the budget of only one, the school district.

"There is a sense that people are just pushed to wall with the amount of taxes that they pay, and voice their concerns this way," said Robert Lowry, the deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. "There's nothing else they can do, and they have to find a way to get their taxes down."

Suburban school districts, particularly those in working-class communities with smaller tax bases, may arm themselves with this year's voting results to lobby lawmakers in Albany to provide more aid next year.

"People are telling their districts, 'We want it, we need it, but find a different way to fund it,' " said Ron Edelson, a partner at Zimmerman-Edelson, a Great Neck public relations firm that represents 17 area school districts. "Unfortunately, on Long Island, education is expensive, and a good education costs money. The bottom line is that we will have to start looking at other alternatives for education funding."

Widely publicized financial scandals like those in the Roslyn and William Floyd school districts tend to undermine voters' faith that their taxes are well spent. Roslyn's budget, with an unusually small 3 percent spending increase, was approved this year, but William Floyd's was defeated by 240 votes, or about 7 percent of the votes cast.

The William Floyd superintendent, Richard Hawkins, said the school board was now talking to residents to understand what changes would have to be made in order for the budget to pass. He said that for the average household, the difference between the original budget and state-mandated austerity would be just $103 a year in taxes.

"The buzz around the community is that this was a message to us, to tell us that they're disappointed in us," Dr. Hawkins said.

In the Sachem district, one of the largest on the Island, the buzz was more like a deafening roar. The board's proposal for a 9.1-percent spending increase and an 18-percent tax increase was overwhelmingly defeated, with six times as many "no" votes as yeses.

"It was no surprise," said James Ruck, superintendent of schools. "We heard a lot of anger that we had the highest tax increase on Long Island, and people were clearly telling us that they can't afford this."

Still, even Sachem will try a revote, on June 22. Dr. Ruck said that he had recommended to the board a revised budget that would cut $8 million in costs and bring the spending increase down to 5.8 percent, with a tax increase of 11.9 percent. Austerity would reduce the district's budget by only $4 million more, he said.

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LONG ISLAND WEEKLY DESK
New York Times, september 5, 2004
Tidied Blackboards, Not-So-Clean Slates
By LINDA SASLOW (NYT)

MELANIE SCHNAIER said that when she heard over the summer that she had been hired as a special education teacher in the Roslyn school district, she was proud to accept the job.
'Three different school districts had offered me a job, but I chose Roslyn because of its reputation,' said Ms. Schnaier, who had been a special-ed teacher in New York City.

Shannon Kenniff, a new chemistry and biology teacher at Roslyn High School, had similar thoughts. 'When I tell people that I'm teaching in Roslyn, they are so impressed,' she said.

The women were attending an orientation meeting last week of Roslyn High School's 14 new teachers and its new principal, Frank Banta, who was just a few hours into his first day on the job. They reviewed schedules, testing and classroom visits by administrators before the discussion turned to the subject on everyone's mind: the district's sudden notoriety after the former superintendent, Frank A. Tassone, and former assistant superintendent for business, Pamela C. Gluckin, were arrested on charges of stealing more than $1 million each in district money. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Two school board members and two school employees also have resigned, and prosecutors and school officials are looking into $8 million in questionable spending by school employees.

'I was very impressed that they didn't avoid the subject but addressed it, and made it clear that we're moving forward,' Arlette Siffer, a new foreign language teacher, said after the meeting. 'What happened in the district was a financial scandal involving a few people, but our focus is on education.'

But because so much attention in Roslyn and in other Long Island school districts has shifted to restoring the community's confidence that the taxpayers' money is being properly spent, the educational focus of the past few years -- trying to meet the state's tougher academic standards -- has been overshadowed.

Dr. Banta said the scandal would not affect the fundamental teaching of students in Roslyn. 'It is unfortunate that a misappropriation of funds occurred, but we have to move beyond that,' he said. 'The financial problems will not negatively impact on any of our students' admission to college.'

Alex Korn, an incoming freshman at Roslyn High School, appeared to be taking the blot on his district's image in stride.

'My mom is a P.T.A. president so I've heard a lot about the scandal,' Alex said. 'Over the summer, when we went to Jones Beach and said we were from Roslyn, some of the kids reacted with 'oohs,' but we all just laughed.'

But David Kraja, another ninth grader, was more anxious. 'After the scandal, when the budget went down, I heard that some of our sports are going to be cancelled,' he said. 'That concerns me because I'm first coming into the school. We're all waiting to find out what will be.'

The scandals in Roslyn and the William Floyd district in Suffolk, where the former treasurer, James Wright, was arrested on charges that he stole more than $530,000, have reverberated through the 124 school districts on Long Island. To address residents' concerns that these are not isolated cases, the state has selected 21 Island districts for audits. In addition to Roslyn and William Floyd, Brentwood, Lawrence, Manhasset and Hempstead are scheduled for intensive audits by the state comptroller's office. Selected for limited reviews were Baldwin, Central Islip, East Islip, East Meadow, Elmont, Locust Valley, Massapequa, North Shore, Plainedge, Riverhead, Sachem, Syosset, Three Village, Westbury and Wyandanch. In the other districts chosen for audits, reactions among administrators have ranged from surprise to acceptance. Some had expected to be on the list.

'As the second largest district on the Island, with 15,500 students and a recent referendum of $228 million, we figured, if anyone was going to be audited on Long Island, why not include Sachem in the mix?' said Jim Ruck, superintendent of the Sachem school district.

The state has not announced a timetable for the audits, so it is unclear how long the districts will have to live under the threat that some bombshell may be unearthed.

'We were advised to expect two auditors for 20 days,' Mr. Ruck said, but he did not know when the review would begin.

'I'm not sure how in-depth that can be,' he added, 'but they will start with credit cards, meals and expenses. In our district, we have only two credit cards, and one is mine. Over the last year, there was $160 charged on it for travel expenses. Our district doesn't travel or go out to dinners. I haven't been to a national conference in my career as superintendent. We are a blue-collar community and those activities are not in our schedule. I suspect that once they see those numbers, they'll have to look in a different direction.'

Kathy Weiss, the superintendent in Baldwin, said she had not expected her district to be audited. 'We have so little money in our district that there's not much that could possibly be stolen,' she said. 'I believe that between our internal and external auditors, who are both C.P.A.'s, we already have our internal controls in place, but we welcome any recommendations of how we could enhance what we are already doing. What I hear from many parents in the district is that this is a waste of everybody's time that could be better spent.'

In Roslyn, a change in leadership was one of the first steps taken to help the district rebound. Last month, the school board hired David J. Helme as interim superintendent and Dr. Banta replaced Jayson Stoller as principal of the high school following allegations that Dr. Stoller had charged the district for several personal trips. Dr. Stoller, who is being reassigned in the district, is under investigation.

'It's a very depressing story,' said Mr. Helme, who came out of retirement. 'The community is stressed out, angry and feels betrayed, and I understand that. We are going to deal with the past by hiring new auditors, conducting formal investigations of all criminal allegations and doing a massive comprehensive review of our financial records from the past six years. It's also a time to rebuild, and we are trying to get the message across that the behavior of a few doesn't mean that we are all guilty. We are really a great district.'

Randi Mondshine, whose two sons are graduates of Roslyn High School and whose daughter is now a senior, said: 'I am disappointed in the events that happened in our district, but they don't take away from the academic excellence in the schools. My children have gotten a wonderful education and although it's not a perfect world, I'm glad that they went through the Roslyn schools.'

But Kenneth Balkan, also a parent of three children who went through the Roslyn schools, was less forgiving.

'Although the district did well for my kids, I am extremely disappointed and outraged at the actions of the school board,' he said. 'They exercised poor judgment, which is a bad example for the kids. This has nothing to do with the academics in the district, but it is irresponsible fiscal management and the lawyer and accountant on our school board should have known better.'

The message has been even stronger from Judi Winters, who has led a call for the resignation of the current school board members, beginning with Pat Schissel. Ms. Schissel has been criticized for her use, at district expense, of a cellphone and home computer and home Internet service.

'We were deceived,' Ms. Winters said. 'Based on the information we have gathered, this scandal has cost each household between $10,000 and $25,000. The board did not act in our best interests and we as a community have been left totally exposed.'

In the William Floyd district, which includes Mastic, Mastic Beach, Shirley and part of Moriches, the district's efforts to win back the community started with the cancellation of contracts with its acting superintendent for business, Daniel Cifonelli, and with its auditors. Richard Hawkins, the William Floyd superintendent, said: 'We are doing everything possible to cooperate with the D.A.'s office, including offering them space in our district to come in and do their investigation. We want to make sure that every rock is looked under, so we can get this past us.'

Yet despite the prevailing tension, there is excitement in the air, Dr. Hawkins said.

'The best thing about a new school year is the kids coming in, excited about a new beginning,' he said. 'There's a sense of renewal, and I'm looking forward to that.'

Spotlight Shifts From Mepham

When Carolyn Davis meets people from out of town and tells them that she is from Bellmore, one of the most frequent questions she hears is, 'Oh, did your kids go to Mepham High School where they had that sexual hazing scandal?'

''No,' I tell them, 'my kids went to Kennedy High School,'' Ms. Davis said. 'But once they hear Bellmore, it's like the association of Merrick with Amy Fisher. The stigma is hard to erase.'

The Bellmore-Merrick School District has been working diligently to move past the incident that tainted its reputation last summer, when rookie football players were assaulted by their teammates. Five high school football coaches were subsequently fired.

Following the episode, a district-wide committee was formed, comprised of parents, students, teachers, administrators and community members to update Mepham policies.

Thomas Carramore, superintendent of schools, said, 'Out of the work of this committee came three important products: an anti-hazing policy, procedures for overnight trips, and a curriculum for character education.'

On Thursday, opening day for the district, the anti-hazing policy was distributed to all staff members, and copies were scheduled to be distributed to students during the first week of school. In addition, we have recognized five qualities of good character: respect, responsibility, courage, compassion and integrity,' said Arnie Goldstein, assistant superintendent for instruction. 'We have added character education into our curriculum, and will integrate it into lessons during the entire school year.'

Before hiring the five new football coaches, the district conducted an extensive search, said Saul Lerner, the district's athletic director.

'The emphasis is on our staff to serve as role models,' he said. 'We are working with our coaches to help all players to develop those same five areas in character education.'

School officials are optimistic that confidence has been restored. 'We didn't lose any staff or any students to private schools, and this year we have more football players than last year,' Dr. Carramore said. 'I believe that we were proactive in responding to this situation, and the community feels positive that we responded appropriately to a terrible situation.' LINDA SASLOW

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