Port Jefferson School District
Budget passed ($46.1 million)
Yes: 642
No: 165
Proposition 2 passed
Yes: 673
No: 130
School board election:
Randi DeWitt: 563*
Ellen Boehm: 550*
Paul Ryan: 267
(reelected *)
Comsewogue Union Free School District
Budget passed ($102.1 million)
Yes: 998
No: 427
School board election:
Robert DeStefano: 921*
Francisca Alabau-Blatter: 655*
Joseph Borruso: 457
Gary Bodenburg: 344
Meghan Puleo: 258
(reelected *)
Tomorrow, residents of the Middle Country Central School District will have the opportunity to weigh in on the future of their local schools.
On Tuesday, May 17, the district will hold its school budget vote and trustee election in the new gymnasiums at both Centereach and Newfield high schools from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The district’s proposed budget of $274,944,707 is up $5,863,749 from the previous year. According to the district’s planning presentation, the stated objective of this year’s budget is to “preserve the pre-K through grade 12 comprehensive program that is currently in place to ensure that students have the opportunities, resources and supports to successfully involve themselves in schooling and extracurricular activities so that they meet the expectations described in the Middle Country mission statement, and to do so by staying within the allowable tax levy cap.”
In the process of preparing this year’s annual budget, the district encountered a number of challenges related to increasing costs, decreasing state aid and declining district reserve balances. Homeowners will see an estimated tax levy increase of 3.10%, which approximates to a $177 increase per household.
Voters will be asked to elect four trustees. Incumbent Robert Feeney is being challenged by Tiffany Lorusso; incumbent Kristopher Oliva by Robert Hallock; incumbent Dawn Sharrock by Kimberly Crawford-Arbocus; and incumbent Denise Haggerty by Leah Fitzpatrick for a remaining two-year term.
A closer look at some of the candidates
By Raymond Janis
Next week, residents of Comsewogue school district will decide upon the election of two candidates for school board.
The terms for trustees Robert DeStefano and Francisca Alabau-Blatter are expiring and both are running for reelection. On Tuesday, May 17, voters will determine who will fill these seats for the next three years.
TBR News Media reached out to the declared candidates, asking them why they are running, what are the most important issues facing the district in the coming term and what they hope to accomplish if elected. Meghan Puleo and Alabau-Blatter could not be reached for interviews. We welcome Puleo and Alabau-Blatter to reach out to us and we will update this story on our website to include these interviews.
Robert DeStefano
DeStefano said he is running for reelection out of love for his community. He added that he and his wife grew up in the community, bought a house there and believe in the importance of giving back.
“To serve this community in this capacity is something that I had the honor of doing for the last dozen years,” he said. “There are still a lot of good things to continue to do, and there are always things that we can be working on to improve.”
According to him, there is still much to be done in terms of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. He said this is still the greatest issue facing the district.
“Right now it’s all about making sure we get the kids recovered from the last couple of years,” he said, adding, “We’ve all been through a lot in getting through the pandemic and making sure that for any students that are still feeling the effects of learning loss, we catch them up.”
If elected for another term, DeStefano said his principal objective is, aside from what was previously stated, to help introduce the new programs coming to the district.
“We have a lot of exciting things coming into the district,” he said. “We are introducing a nine-period day in our high school. We have plans to bring that into our middle school to give our students more options for additional classes.” He added that he intends to perfect these programs as they are implemented by “making sure that these initiatives thrive and become part of the curriculum, so that our younger students and our future students can count on them beyond the life of just this term.”
Joseph Borruso
Borruso said that a number of people throughout the community are seeking change in the school district.
“A lot of the candidates have been there for 10-plus years now, so they just want some fresh people in there,” he said. “My background I think is a perfect fit. I have a bachelor’s in finance and accounting, so I think I would be a good addition to help out in all aspects of the school board and the community.”
If elected, Borruso intends to focus on the curriculum and academic programs throughout the district. “We’re ranked well below some of the similar-sized schools, like Mount Sinai, Rocky Point and Miller Place,” he said. “I don’t think we’re as bad as the rankings show but I’ll dig deep into how these rankings are done and processed, and see what we can do better to get our rankings up.”
Borruso said active participation on the school board will be his principal objective. “I want to go there with a fresh way of thinking and utilize my background and skills to help push a positive agenda forward,” he said.
Gary Bodenburg
Bodenburg said he has served the community in various capacities through committees throughout the district. According to him, he is currently the director of curriculum and instruction for a nonprofit organization that helps women and children who are victims of domestic violence.
“It’s safe to say that I am really doing this to move together as a community, enrich the lives of all of our children and support our staff and teachers to the best of my ability,” he said.
Bodenburg emphasized the importance of costs and fiscal responsibility. At a time of great uncertainty, he suggests thoughtful consideration of budgets to be paramount.
“It’s important to be mindful and to make sure that our budget is very tight,” he said. “We need to be extremely mindful of the circumstances surrounding what’s happening in our world and our fiscal responsibilities to our constituents.”
Bodenburg said his principal objective is to improve communication and transparency among all stakeholders and constituents throughout the district, adding, “And with that, our goal is to advocate for children. That is the most important thing that we need to do as board members.”
At a recent Board of Education meeting for the Middle Country Central School District, Suffolk County Legislator Nick Caracappa was recognized and awarded with a Certificate of Appreciation.
The certificate was the Board of Ed’s way of thanking the Legislator for his efforts in successfully eliminating Stagecoach Elementary School in Selden as a polling location for general and special elections. Caracappa, a former Middle Country School Board member himself is currently in negotiations with the Suffolk County Board of Elections to eliminate polling locations from other schools in the district as well.
“Thank you Legislative Caracappa for following through on protecting our students by removing the voting from Stagecoach Elementary. We certainly appreciate the partnership,” stated Middle Country School’s Board of Ed. President, Dr. Karen J. Lessler. Superintendent Dr. Roberta Gerold commented, “Middle Country thanks Legislator Caracappa for his commitment to the safety and security of our district – we appreciate him!”
“Our children’s safety is the number one priority in these efforts,” stated Legislator Caracappa. “I acted on this measure not only as an elected official, but as a father. I am humbled by the recognition for what was truly a community effort. My thanks go out to the Selden Fire Department, along with Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine for providing alternate polling sites for voters. Additionally, I thank Dr. Lessler, Dr. Gerold, and the entire Board of Education for acknowledging me with this Certificate of Appreciation.”
By Andrea Paldy
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was preparing to release its recommendations for the nation’s schools to safely reopen, the focus of the Three Village school board meeting Feb. 10 was on sustaining its in-person learning. Seating was limited in accordance with current distancing guidelines.
Even as parents and students expressed gratitude for the district’s September in-person reopening, there was general acknowledgment of the emotional and financial challenges associated with opening schools every day in the middle of a pandemic.
“It costs a lot of money but the message we had gotten going back to last summer was, ‘Do what you need to do to get our kids back to school and do it safely.’ And we’ve done that,” said Jeff Carlson, deputy superintendent for business services.
But there is a continuing cost. Carlson prepared residents for a 2021-22 budget that would pierce the cap on the tax levy increase. He said Three Village spent about $6.5 million in COVID-related expenses to support last fall’s reopening to all students who wanted to return in-person every day. The school district also provided fully remote instruction to students whose families requested it.
More than $4 million went to hiring more teachers to decrease class sizes so that classrooms would be less crowded, and students could maintain a distance of 6 feet, the deputy superintendent said. The attention to social distancing also meant that as the school year progressed, the New York State Department of Health did not require entire classes to quarantine when someone contracted the virus.
Funds also went toward paying for masks, janitorial staff, cleaning supplies, Chromebooks and desk barriers, Carlson said.
Next year’s budget anticipates similar costs to keep the same protections in place. Though the increase to the budget would be below 2 percent — 1.85 percent — it would exceed the district’s tax cap of 1.37 percent, Carlson said.
The deputy superintendent said the district was able to cover the expenses this year, in part, because Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed a bill allowing school districts and local governments to transfer money from their reserve funds to their operating budgets to pay for pandemic-related expenses. He added that Three Village will have spent between $4 million and $5 million from its reserves, and in compliance with the bill will need to pay back the funds within five years.
In the coming year, the governor’s preliminary budget shows a small decrease in aid to the district. Additionally, Three Village will begin repaying about $800,000 to its reserves. Carlson said that these pandemic-related expenses, along with the usual increases in health insurance and employee retirement funds, also contractual increases, will make it impossible to put together a budget that stays within the cap.
Since the budget will be above the tax cap, it will need a supermajority — a vote of 60 percent in favor — to pass. The last time the district exceeded the cap was in 2012, the first year such caps were put in place. At that time, $1.95 million in cuts had to be made, because the budget was not approved by a supermajority.
“It’s a different time,” Carlson said of the upcoming budget. “We want to keep schools open. If not for COVID, we wouldn’t even be talking about this.”
Student life
At the same time that parents and students thanked the district for a full reopening, they also voiced frustration about some of the losses in the past year.
Speaking to the board about allowing spectators at sporting events, one parent noted that too much has already been taken away from students.
Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich assured parents that they have the support of the school district, which has registered a vote with Section XI in favor of allowing spectators at sporting events.
And while “school in person was a huge win,” said Jesse Behar, a Ward Melville senior and student representative to the school board, seniors are looking at lost milestones such as homecoming and Senior Day. They are also concerned about whether there will be a prom or “any modified in-person events,” as well as celebrations for students moving up from the sixth and ninth grades, Behar said.
“I feel positive you will make graduation happen, because last year, when many districts threw their hands up, you guys made graduation happen,” he said.
Pedisich responded to these concerns by saying, “We know that those are significant milestones for our seniors and also our ninth-graders moving up, as well as our sixth-graders. We are not giving up hope.”
She added that the governor’s pending approval in March of weddings of 150 people is a good sign and reason for optimism.
“We are looking at options that will make this as special as it can be for our seniors,” Pedisich said.
By Andrea Paldy
The first in-person Three Village school board meeting since schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic July 8 was eventful. Everyone wore mandatory face masks, and seating was arranged for social distancing. Most notable was the tense public participation session marked by sharp opinions.
“It is important tonight that we distinguish the personal from the political.”
— David McKinnon
There was also the routine swearing in of board members — incumbents Inger Germano, Irene Gische and Dr. Jeff Kerman — for new terms. The board elected Germano as its new president. She succeeds Bill Connors, who continues to serve as a trustee. Gische was reelected vice president.
Rising to the forefront, though, were recent parental criticisms of the district, though those who spoke during the meeting sought to balance their criticism about distance learning and district governance with their support for teachers.
“It is important tonight that we distinguish the personal from the political,” said David McKinnon, a professor of Neurobiology at Stony Brook University and recently an unsuccessful school board candidate.
“At a personal level, there’s a high level of respect for the teachers in our district, and there are deep ties of gratitude within the community to individual teachers for their efforts to advance the education of our children,” said McKinnon, who was not on the slate of candidates endorsed by the Three Village Teachers Association.
However, he said, when it came to the political system, the school board elected to “facilitate parental oversight” of the district wasn’t doing its job. The TVTA, he said, is both a labor union and a special interest lobby group, which “aggressively pursues its own agenda,” and has made decisions for the district that exacerbated an already challenging situation.
McKinnon went on to say that he believed that the nearly 3,800 votes cast for both him and Shaorui Li respectively represented “a massive vote of no confidence” in the board and union leadership. In order to win back the trust of a large segment of parents, McKinnon said the district would need to have a “clean and functional school board, with independent, parent-backed candidates who know and care about education.”
Li said that she and other parents wanted to help teachers, not attack them.
“In the Asian culture, we have a very high respect for teachers, and we rely on teachers to give our kids their education,” the engineer and entrepreneur said.
McKinnon’s wife, Barbara Rosati, who is president of the Three Village Parents Alliance, which counts more than 250 district families among its members, also spoke. She made the distinction between her concerns about TVTA president Claudia Reinhart’s “role in the governance of our district and its consequences on our children” and her appreciation for the district’s teachers.
“I cannot believe I was dragged here tonight to say unequivocally that we support and we love our teachers, that we believe in their expertise and guidance,” she said, alluding to the pandemic. Rosati, a research assistant professor at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at SBU, questioned the leadership of Reinhart, who she said “is not teaching currently and is not involved in any parent-teacher interaction.”
She added that it was “irresponsible and cruel to let teachers believe that our community is at war with them.”
Addressing teachers and administrators, Rosati added: “We have your backs. We will be here to help and support you like we have always done.”
“I am here because we, along with our administrator colleagues and the board of education, are under attack.”
— Claudia Reinhart
Reinhart rejected claims that the criticism was not directed at the teachers, paraprofessionals and teaching assistants the union represents.
“I am here because we, along with our administrator colleagues and the board of education, are under attack,” she said.
The union president said they’d been forced to listen to people “like Ms. Rosati” and others who had written to the board to “demand answers and reactions to nothing more than hearsay — hearsay that is usually completely incorrect.”
Reinhart, who taught music in the district, said the union does not try to hide the fact that it endorses candidates.
“Why would we?” she asked. “We want people on the board who understand public education and the needs of students and staff. We want people on the board with a proven record of overcoming challenges and moving us forward in good times and bad. Your candidates lost the election. The community has spoken. You need to get over it.”
Reinhart directed comments to the many teachers at the meeting.
“We must stand together united against this attack,” she said. “We must stand together to defend our professions, the work we do and the job we have done. We have nothing to be ashamed of. It is time we started saying that out loud.”
She urged parents, teachers, administrators and the community “to stand up and say, ‘Enough.’” She ended by drawing from the words of the late Albert Shanker, former president of the United Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers, saying, “Along with the responsibility of negotiating good contracts, it is the obligation of teacher unions to preserve public education.”
“That is our goal,” Reinhart told the audience. “There is nothing less at stake than our future,” she added, sparking enthusiastic applause.
Fall Plans
Besides those who spoke in-person at last week’s meeting, three parents sent letters that included appreciation for teachers, but also expressed concern about the district’s spring execution of remote learning, plans for the fall and limited communication from the school district.
“We must be prepared for whatever the decision may be from the state Education Department and the governor.”
— Kevin Scanlon
Responding, Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said that she shared parents’ frustration about the upcoming school year.
“I feel as though we are all navigating in the dark at this point because we have not received any direction at all from our governor [Andrew Cuomo (D)] or the SED [New York State Education Department],” she said.
Earlier that day Pedisich had sent a letter acknowledging parents’ “unanswered questions about the reopening of school this fall” and shared the governor’s most recent plan to release guidance July 13 [see details at end of article] and require districts to return their plans for reopening by July 31.
During the meeting, Pedisich noted that other states — Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, among them — had already provided their school districts with plans for reopening.
“I will tell you that we are working very hard … over the last several weeks, and I apologize for the lack of communication,” she said, adding that she would not “deal in conjecture and supposition,” because she didn’t think it was fair to families and staff.
The superintendent specifically addressed concerns about remote learning.
“We are looking at all options to make it more effective for our families,” she said. “We understand that there were numerous challenges, and we won’t make excuses for those. But moving forward, I think we are in a much better place. And I have great confidence in the members of our team, and I have confidence in our administration, our staff and our parents. We will do the best for the community. We owe it to them, and they deserve nothing less.”
So far, Pedisich said, the district plans for every student from kindergarten to 12th grade to have access to a Chromebook for remote instruction, and a survey about distance learning was sent out to parents and staff last week.
In an email, Kevin Scanlon, assistant superintendent for educational services, said the district has also offered more than 90 courses to its staff, with the majority focused on online instruction. There are more than 1,500 teachers, administrators, assistants and paraprofessionals enrolled in the courses to prepare for the fall, he said.
“We must be prepared for whatever the decision may be from the state Education Department and the governor,” Scanlon said.
The state released its reopening guidelines on Monday. The document offers districts guidance on face coverings for staff and students, configuring classrooms, hallways, lunchrooms and other shared spaces to maintain social distance and safety, as well as recommendations for ways to maximize in-person instruction. While the document states that “the goal is to return all students to in-person instruction,” it encourages districts to prepare “a phased-in approach or hybrid model” because of “the dynamic nature and risk of community transmission” of the virus.
District plans will have to address how they will conform to state recommendations on social distancing, personal protection equipment, hygiene and disinfection, extracurriculars and transportation, as well as health monitoring and containment.
By Andrea Paldy
This spring, voting on the school budget and school board faced the notable challenge of taking place during a pandemic, but other than record levels of voter participation, the final results were anything but unprecedented.
With the absentee ballots counted, Three Village residents voted overwhelmingly in favor — 6,096 for and 3,135 against — to approve the $218.84 million budget for the 2020-21 school year.
Residents also chose to return incumbents Inger Germano (4,727 votes), Irene Gische (4,506) and Dr. Jeffrey Kerman (4,479) to the school board, over challengers Shaorui Li (3,722), David McKinnon (3,799) and Vinny Menten (2,810).
During a phone interview this week, Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich expressed gratitude to the community for its support and confidence in the budget. But not everyone was satisfied with the election process.
Three Village parent David Tracy expressed his dissatisfaction in a letter that was read during the board’s June 24 meeting. He was “extremely disappointed,” Tracy said, with the teachers union’s ability to “enforce their will on a board of education election.”
The Three Village Teachers Association and New York State Union of Teachers endorsed Germano, Gische and Kerman and paid for the candidates’ campaign signs.
“Having independent candidates is absolutely paramount in ensuring the best interest of all parties involved, mainly the students and the taxpayers,” he said.
Tracy compared the unions’ public and financial support of candidates to “Congress or other political bodies voting for their own raises.” In his letter, he also spoke of what he said is a trend of budget increases despite declining enrollment and voiced his concerns about nepotism, favoritism and conflicts of interest.
While Barbara Rosati, president of the Three Village Parents Alliance, congratulated the newly reelected board members, she too questioned the election process, asking how independent, community-backed candidates could compete against the efforts of the TVTA and NYSUT.
Rosati is married to McKinnon, one of this year’s independent candidates. She said that with the union president having “regular access” to administrators and board members “in private settings,” that such access can sometimes mean that the board as a whole is bypassed in some decisions — something she believed happened with the launch of this spring’s remote learning.
“I love and support our teachers, and they deserve to have a strong union, but I am concerned about our district’s governance in the current situation,” Rosati added.
Board members and administrators did not respond to Rosati’s request for “comments, insight and solutions” during the meeting.
However, board president Bill Connors did address the issue in a phone interview.
“We represent the community on the board of education, and we work with the teachers union because we have an awful lot in common,” he said. “We are working in the interest of the children, and I see them as a real partner.”
Though Connors sees the goals of the board and the union as aligned, he said there have been times when the two have not agreed. In 1997, for instance, the district narrowly avoided a strike over a provision in the teachers’ contract requiring them to contribute to their health insurance. The issue was resolved in time for the new school year.
Connors, who announced at the June 24 meeting that he is stepping down as board president, also clarified a statement Rosati made about the union president being on the district payroll. Her salary, Connors said, is reimbursed by the TVTA.
Pedisich declined to comment on the parent letters, but said she appreciates the community feedback.
Remote Learning and School Reopening Task Force
During the board’s June 29 meeting, the discussion centered on remote instruction and the reopening of schools in September.
Rosati was critical of the district’s handling of remote learning during the pandemic, calling it “chaotic.” She made comparisons to what she saw as more successful implementations of synchronous instruction in the nearby Half Hollow Hills District and the free summer bridge program offered by Smithtown to students in grades kindergarten through eighth. She also posed questions about how the district will move forward with instruction and reopening in the fall.
“We recognize that there were aspects of our program that did not go as smoothly as we had wanted, or may not have been as effective,” Pedisich said of the implementation of distance learning in March, during the meeting.
She added that the district has more insight now.
“We are looking at what worked well and what did not work well,” she said.
The district is preparing a survey that will go out to parents and staff in the coming days, Pedisich said. Though officials have received many comments from parents, she said they are difficult to quantify. A survey “can grab information we need and synthesize it quickly,” she added.
The superintendent also said that the district is waiting for guidance from the state, but that its school reopening task force is considering three models — one in which everyone returns, a hybrid model of some in-person classes and some remote, or an entirely remote model.
The district is also preparing for the possibility that the year could begin in-person but revert to entirely remote instruction as it did in March. For this reason, she said, the district will provide kindergarten through sixth grade students with Chromebooks that they will be able to use at home.
The reopening task force is made up of subcommittees for transportation, instruction, scheduling, childcare, athletics, mental health, health needs, facility needs and professional development and technology. Task force members include staff, administrators, parents and board members. Pedisich said parents were selected by the PTA council, while staff and administrators were chosen by their union leadership.
The instructional subcommittee, which has been further divided into elementary and secondary subgroups, is looking at guidelines for minimum standards of instruction and synchronous learning across the district. Pedisich said that the elementary level and secondary levels will probably look different. She foresees more structure for the more independent secondary students and more flexibility for younger children who might need assistance from parents.
She said that teachers are continuing to train over the summer to use Google Meets and Hangouts — conferencing software similar to Zoom — that are part of the Google platform the district already uses.
“We as educators feel that it’s so critical for us to be back in September,” Pedisich said, adding that teachers who will be working with new groups of students need to be able to assess their students’ learning styles and needs.
“That’s why we’re looking at following all of the recommendations from the CDC and the DOH, so that we can come back at least for a period of time so that we can get to know our students,” she said.
In other news, the board approved the contracts for the superintendent and the assistant superintendents.
The average Commack homeowner will see an annual tax increase of around $200 if residents vote “yes” for the 2020-2021 school budget of $199,759,525. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, homeowners will vote on the budget via mail as no in-person voting will be made available.
The Commack School District Board of Education adopted the budget during its meeting held via Zoom May 19. If approved by residents, the tax cap levy increase will be 1.99 percent with a budget-to-budget increase of 1.37 percent.
Superintendent Donald James said the district, like others across New York state, is still waiting to hear if state aid will be cut later in the year, which means certain budget line items may still change. As Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced a few weeks ago that districts can see cuts of 20 percent or more, James said that figure is an average and the exact amount, whether lower or higher, would be based on the size and wealth of the district. He said there could be rolling cuts as well.
“That’s not good news,” he said. “That’s challenging for us because once programs are in place you count on your funds coming in, and you count on managing your programs based on funds you think you’re going to get from the state.”
The superintendent said while it’s difficult to plan the budget without knowing the exact amount of reductions, they have developed alternative plans if they’re more than anticipated.
James said some reductions in the budget were enrollment driven and in place before the pandemic. There will also be reductions in personnel due to resignations or retirements. There will be 11 full-time employees less due to retirement, 10 FTE teacher assistants reduced after program reviews and 12.7 FTE, plus approximately 32 individuals such as school monitors and instructional aides due to enrollment decline.
These staff reductions have already resulted in budget savings due to the attrition. The superintendent said they may have to revisit reducing staff further, as the district may need to revisit the number of cafeteria monitors.
James said there is currently a task force looking at changes which may be required to open up schools with COVID-19 distancing practices put in place. The superintendent said transportation, sports, field trips, school gatherings and more could be affected. Possible changes could include temperatures being taken and physical measures to help with distancing. The possible increase in costs is something the district is unable to estimate at this time.
James said he has received some suggestions involving opening up school post-COVID to maintain physical distance, including reducing class sizes. He said to a certain degree the district could do so if they double the number of teachers, but the problem is the buildings don’t have double the number of classrooms.
He said the district may have to look at other ways to schedule student classes.
If the budget is passed June 9, the district plans to keep classroom sizes the same or lower, and mental health support and programs such as arts, music, physical education and more will stay intact. The district is also planning a Chromebook laptop initiative, and every student is set to receive one. James said it will be a benefit even when students return to classrooms as their books will now be loaded on Chromebooks.
James said there is a pandemic elimination adjustment of $226,250, and the district received federal stimulus money that took care of that and they may get more. He said there is not much in the capital reserve funds, however, if there is a 20 percent cut in state aid it would mean more than $6.6 million taken from the budget.
The superintendent said due to school closures the district saved $3 million, part of that money being for transportation, which could be applied to next year.
James said the district has properties they could sell to tenants who are interested, though he stressed that he was not talking about Marion Carll Farm. He said selling any properties would need residents approval through a vote.
There is a possibility of saving $2.55 million with the elimination of Common Core and individuals involved with the program such as instructional aides. Other things that could be looked into are reducing high school electives, field trips, art and music classes, staff reductions and professional development for teachers.
James said if the budget isn’t passed in June it would mean the district would have to cut an additional $2,834,090 from the budget for a total cut of $7.8 million. The Chromebook project would be eliminated as well as no equipment purchases would be made. Also, residents and community organizations would be unable to use the facilities and grounds, while elementary and middle school class sizes would need to increase and several high school electives, athletics and clubs would be eliminated.
A public hearing will be held June 2 during a virtual meeting that will be simulcast on the district’s website, www.commackschools.org.The budget vote is set for June 9.
Commack School District Board of Education has two seats up for grabs with incumbent Susan Hermer and Mike Weisberg running for one position. As for the second seat, incumbent William Hender is running unopposed. For more information on the candidates, visit www.tbrnewsmedia.com.
By Andrea Paldy
As if times are not challenging enough, districts across the state must create budgets without knowing when, or by how much, state aid will be cut.
Jeff Carlson, deputy superintendent for business services, has removed $1 million from next year’s budget in anticipation of cuts beyond the $300,000 decrease in aid already projected by the state in March.
The current 2020-21 budget falls within the cap on the tax levy increase of 1.96 percent, for a total budget of $218.84 million. This is a 1.75 percent increase over the 2019-20 budget.
The district has begun to make contingency plans with alternate budgets, being referred to as Phase 2, which would mean a further $2 million reduction and Phase 3, which would require a deeper cut of $3 million. Cuomo has said school aid could drop by as much as 20 percent and cuts could take place as late as December, Carlson said.
If cuts go deeper than Phase 3, they will definitely affect services and student programs, Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said at the district’s May 6 school board meeting. The board would have to decide whether to make deeper cuts to the budget or use district reserves, she said.
One thing officials do know is that they do not want to make cuts once the school year has begun and would not make cuts to instructional staff.
Pedisich said the district would have to look to reserves, because “any kind of midyear cuts in terms of services would be incredibly disruptive … and this year has been disruptive itself, so we don’t want to add to it and exacerbate the situation.”
The district held a hearing on the budget May 27. Carlson will also give a budget presentation June 1 at 6:45 p.m. at the Three Village Joint Council of PTAs virtual Meet the Candidates night on Zoom. This program will allow residents to hear from the six candidates running for three seats on the school board.
Also, the Three Village Civic Association and Three Village Chamber of Commerce will jointly host an online Meet the Candidates event Thursday, May 28, at 7 p.m. via Zoom conferencing. For information about how to be part of the online meeting, go to the websites of either the civic association, www.threevillagecivics.org, or the chamber of commerce, www.3vchamber.com, for links to the Zoom meeting.
Incumbents Inger Germano, Irene Gische and Dr. Jeff Kerman are running against Shaorui Li, David McKinnon and Vinny Menten.
All 34,025 registered voters in Three Village will receive ballots with paid return postage to vote on the 2020-21 budget and board trustees. Ballots must be returned to the office of the district clerk at the North Country Administration building by 5 p.m. on June 9.
Visit www.tbrnewsmedia.com for profiles on each of the candidates.
A familiar face has returned to the Rocky Point school district’s board of education.
Scott Reh was officially sworn in to the board Jan. 14 and will serve in the role until the conclusion of the trustee term come May. Reh was appointed to fill the trustee seat vacated by Joseph Coniglione earlier this school year.
To be on the board of education you must reside in the school district. Coniglione recently bought a home in Shoreham so he had to step down.
“Rather than trying to find someone new, we went with Scott — we know him, he’s a stand-up guy,” Coniglione said. “He’ll do what’s best for the kids and the district.”
Reh has served on the board of education before. He served as a trustee and vice president for eight years up until June 2018, when he initially decided to step down.
Reh said instead of going through a trustee election, the board asked him to come back in his old position.
“They wanted me to fill the spot left by [Coniglione] until the end of school year,” Reh said.
The trustee election will take place May 21. The trustee elected as a result of community vote will be sworn in as normal.
Reh said he has no plans on securing re-election in May and will let other candidates run for his seat.
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