Blind Brook Budget and School Board Election Wrap-up

Over ninety percent of school budgets in Westchester County passed last week.  Part of the reason for the overwhelming support is due to the fact that school boards around the county worked hard to keep increases within the proposed 2 percent cap that Gov. Cuomo has been promoting.  Although the cap has yet to become law, it has wide support throughout the state (in excess of 75 percent of voters.)  So, the message was clear, and school boards worked within those parameters.

What most people do not realize, however, is that when budget increases are close to the rate of inflation, then there is not much incentive for school boards to do even better.  Contingency budgets which come into play when a proposed budget is defeated by the voters still allow year-to-year increases at 120 percent of the rate of inflation, or 4 percent -- whichever is lower.  So, the fact of the matter is that even if voters had rejected their local school budgets this year, there would be very little change in the actual numbers.  Only if the proposed increase (on a budget-to-budget basis) were well in excess of the rate of inflation would the voters have a say.

Voters must realize that it is far more important who they elect to their school board than whether they vote yes or no on the budget.  It is the school board that has the ability to go through the budget line-by-line, identify waste, prioritize spending, and craft a responsible budget.  School board members are fiduciaries for the citizens of their respective districts.  The educational professionals who work for the district must inform the board as to the best practices in the education of our children.  Then, it is the Board's responsibility to find the right balance.

Our election in the Blind Brook School District in Rye Brook was a heated one this year.  While all four candidates spoke of fiscal responsibility, I was certainly the one candidate who was willing to go on the record as to how it can be achieved.  I have been trying to provide a road map for how we can meet the financial challenges ahead without cutting into the academic and extra-curricular programs that we value.

This election taught me (a political newcomer) a few lessons.  It is difficult to convey a clear message to the whole community -- especially when the issues are complicated and the subject matter (the education of our children) is an emotional one.  The opportunities to speak directly to the community are limited.  This year there was one candidates' forum that was attended by approximately 80 community members.  That is just a sliver of the 1500+ voters who came to the polls.  Our local weekly newspaper and Rye Patch still only reach less than a majority of the households in our district, and even then, it is difficult to convey an accurate accounting of each candidate.

In a small community like Blind Brook, email has an outsized effect.  The problem with email, however, is that it is only read by its recipients, it is not part of the public discourse, and it does not always allow for a fair debate.  In our recent election, the emails were flying all over the place, and most of them were not sent out by the candidates themselves.  If it were all constructive, positive messages, then perhaps there would be no problem here.  Unfortunately, this was not the case.  Many of the emails were not only negative, but they were wildly inaccurate.  In a sense, these emails amounted to "election by guerilla warfare."  We should all really put some thought into this issue before next year's election rolls around.

I am pleased that a majority of the voters seem to have heard my real message, and that the negative campaigning fell mostly on deaf ears.  As was recently suggested in an opinion letter, in our small community we don't have to follow the example of attack ads and negativity that are a "steady diet of national and state political campaigns."  Is that really what we want to be so close to home when we are electing our neighbors and fellow community members to a volunteer position on our local school board?  We should all take a moment out of our busy lives to give this some thought.  We are -- after all -- a community.