Readers Write: Proposed Port Washington school budget

The Island Now

In two months, this coming May, you must vote “NO” on the proposed Port school budget for next year.

You can no longer worry that by voting “NO, “you may be hurting the children. You won’t be and that’s for sure. Rather, you will be helping the children and their parents.

We are at the very beginnings of a worldwide coronavirus pandemic and our Port school officials are pretending that it isn’t happening. They’re pretending that today, it’s just business as usual. And since it’s simply business as usual, our school officials are asking you to approve of and to pay for, the largest budget increase in our school district’s history.

In 1918-19, a worldwide influenza epidemic took the lives of 40 to 50 million people. No one knows the exact number. No one knows today, how many lives will eventually be lost to the coronavirus, but you can be sure that worldwide, over two years, it will be millions.

And while the coronavirus is ravaging the world, there will be extreme social, economic and financial disruptions in our country and in others.

Will thousands of Port Washington residents and many Port businesses suffer significant losses of income while the coronavirus rages? Of course, they will, but are our school officials aware of that eventuality? Apparently not.

Our school officials have proposed a budget for next year that reflects an increase in spending of about $7.5 – $8 million. That’s 4.5 percent, or more, spending increase. What should they be proposing for the next school year?

They should be proposing, no increase in spending. We are facing catastrophic events and our school officials have chosen to ignore them. Our district’s assistant superintendent for business will jump out of her seat when I suggest no increase in spending because she will point out that the district has contracts that call for spending increases.

However, my response to that is that district must ask for and insist, that those spending increases be deferred, until some future year when a budget can pay for them, with interest.

What are the major items that account for the proposed increase in spending of $7.5 – $8.0 million?

Here they are: Raises (non-merit based) to teachers, $3 million; Hiring new teachers and staff (these are additions to staff, not replacements of staff), $500,000; Repairing or replacing roof sections at the Salem ES and at the Schreiber HS, $2 million; and increases in School bus transportation costs, $1 million.

Obviously, the health and safety of the children who attend the Salem Elementary School and the Schreiber High School, and the health and safety of the teachers and other district staff who work in those schools, are of the highest priority to us.

Those roof sections must be repaired or replaced and the next budget must pay for that. And school bus costs must be paid for, whatever the bus contracts call for. However, none of our teachers will have to apply for food stamps, if their contractual raises are deferred and the proposed hiring of new staff, will just have to be postponed, to some future date.

Our current school budget amounts to almost $161 million. There is no reason why our school district couldn’t operate for another year, with a budget of that amount, without adversely affecting the children. 80 percent of the budget pays for generous salaries and for generous fringe benefits for our teachers, administrators and for other district staff.

I’m sure that our very experienced assistant superintendent for business and our school board, will be able to devise a new budget for next year that deprives the children of nothing while continuing to operate our school district as before.

Vote “NO,” this coming May. It’s your obligation to your family and our community, to do that.

Joel Katz
Port Washington

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