Blind Brook Board of Education Adopts $39.3 million Budget

The Blind Brook-Rye Union Free School District Board of Education adopted a $39.3 million budget Monday that includes a 0.98 percent tax levy increase and a budget-to-budget increase of 0.98 percent.

The budget adoption followed two and half hours of rather tense, at times, public debate. The Blind Brook-Rye Teachers' Federation President Trudi Davis announced that the Federation would waive the right to welfare insurance allowances in exchange for a reduction in cuts to the special education program.

Saying that the federation was aware of the harsh economic times and worried about the consequences of some of the proposed cuts, the teachers federation, school related personnel union, and administrative union proposed waiving the right to an insurance allowance contribution to the federation welfare fund for the 2010-2011 school year in exchange for keeping the school psychologist in addition to two school related personnel positions. The proposed waiver of $323,000 comes from money the taxpayers would have paid to the fund.

Several Board of Education members called the proposal too little, and disagreed with the strings attached as part of the terms of the offer.

"The Federation's offer is like a carousel, it looks good but doesn't get us anywhere," board member Lawrence Engle said.

Engle voted against all parts of the Federations' proposal while Board of Education President Steve Kaplan voted against all parts of the proposal that had to do with dictation of terms. Board of Education Members Glen Schuster, Nancy Barr, and Vice-President Sheri Zarkower, voted for the proposal saying it may be too little, but did not sacrifice the needs of the students.

"I think it doesn't make sense to say no," Barr said.  "I think we do need to say yes. I think that is in the best interest of the children."

Several community members commended the Federation making the proposal in the first place, but called the 11th hour offer disturbing and said they were disappointed with the terms.

"We look forward to maybe a more collaborative effort in the future between the union and the board because we've all got to live together and we've got to do a better job going forward," Bradley Hamburger, a parent in the district, said.

The approved budget includes the addition of a section for the incoming third grade class, the addition of a science coordinator at the elementary school and the continued funding of two special needs after school programs. The budget cuts the director of curriculum position as well as several other positions, and eliminates of funding for ice hockey and swimming programs. At a prior budget meeting the Board of Education agreed to the formation of a booster club which will raise money to allow the ice hockey team to continue.

Also debated Monday night was the district's IMPACT and FLES programs. Deborah Weisel, principal of the Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street Elementary School, presented both enrichment programs and after a lengthy discussion about the values of the gifted and talented and foreign language program, the Board of Education approved continued funding for both programs.

At an earlier budget meeting there was an issue of how to handle real estate tax certiorari claims that the district estimates will cost them $132,000 in tax refunds during the 2010-2011 school year. The school district had the option of paying for those tax refunds by cutting that amount from the budget, raising the tax levy, or paying property owners from the district's tax reserve fund. The Board agreed to use the reserve fund to pay the property owners who've filed successful certiorari claims.

Resident Dick Hubert, who recently announced his candidacy for a seat on the Board of Education, commented about how, at a seminar on prospective school board member responsibilities sponsored by the Westchester-Putnam School Boards Association, most of the candidates he met were running on a platform of reducing school budgets.

 "We are not alone," Hubert said. "This district is in as big a financial squeeze as just about every school district in Westchester and Putnam," Hubert said. "The future is in our hands."

In approving the budget, Superintendent William Stark and Board of Education members reiterated the point that the school budget increased only 0.98 percent and that in preparing a budget they attempted to balance the economic realities the needs of the students while prioritizing limited resources. The adopted budget's tax levy increase of 0.98 percent is also lower than the 2.14 percent tax levy increase in the proposed budget the superintendent presented in February.

"This is really about the children," Zarkower said. "We are in the business of educating our children and sometimes that gets lost in all the rhetoric. I think this budget at 0.98 percent in terms of its budget-to-budget [increase] and in terms of the tax levy increase reflects our commitment to the children as well as our sensitivity to the entire community of taxpayers."

The 2010-2011 budget of $39,310,694 will be presented to the public on May 10. The community will vote on the budget on May 18.