The Syosset school board adopted a $192,353,912 million budget Thursday night, which calls for an increase of 1.86 percent from last year – the lowest in 21 years.
“We don’t want to make changes to any program in the district,” Superintendent Carole Hankin said in front of a packed crowd at . “A child coming in would get the same excellent education."
The administration said that a no vote would only hurt taxpayers. They explained that a failed budget would mean the district would have to go to a contingency budget, and the accepted by teachers and the administration would not stand.
“We developed the budget as the same number that the state has the contingency," Hankin said. "Which means a no vote – a contingency vote – would have the budget go up. That is because at that time, the $3.3 million contract freeze our employees have voluntarily agreed to on their contacts, will go back in the budget."
Hankin said that this means a failed budget would actually increase peoples taxes, and warned of what a failed budget could mean for the schools.
"In a case that's probably unheard of, a failed budget increases the taxes," Hankin said. "Because once you put that $3.3 million in, we're already in austerity. So that increases our budget by that amount, the 1.86 percent increase would become 3.61, and we would have to at that point look at program changes and personnel changes."
The budget approved was not the same as the hard copy handed out to residents Thursday night. The document handed out states that the total budget figure comes in at $192,561,637 – about $210,000 more than the figure the administration gave.
The district was able to save money at the last minute through savings in special education, according to Hankin. But she declined to go into specific details after the meeting. Special ed amounts to $25.734 million of the budget.
The administration also said Syosset schools were hit with a new MTA tax – which Hankin called “unfair” during the meeting – as well as a new sewer tax. It was unclear exactly how much each new tax would cost the district.
While other school boards such as and have made property tax increase numbers available, no such information was presented to residents at Thursday’s meeting.
The crowd was supportive of Hankin and the administration during the meeting, applauding after a mention was made of the salary freeze agreement, and after a promotional video of the school district was played.
A full copy of the budget will be made available on the district website on April 18. The budget hearing will take place Monday, May 9 at 8 p.m. at South Woods. The takes place on May 17 from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Syosset elementary schools.
The point here is that we are paying expenses at a rate not supported by this kind of end product. There are many good teachers here who work hard. There are also teachers who are coasting and that is obvious. No different than any other district. However, NO OTHER DISTRICT IN THE ENTIRE STATE PAYS THEIR ADMINISTRATION AS MUCH AS SYOSSET. For that I unapologetically expect the absolute best, not average. The "BEST" administration would not mishandle the budget process like this. The "BEST" administration would have put in the time and effort that other districts have and built a consensus. This is a lazy, greedy, self serving administration running unchecked with our money. It is most certainly NOT for the kids.
I think I'd like to be at a budget planning meeting or hearing, or at least pay for an impartial investigation on whether the budget items are necessary or not. Doen't the average taxpayer/resident have any recourse? Do we have to appeal to the State Department of Education? I am a senior resident of Syosset and have lived here for 40 years, paying taxes and having three children go through the school system.
Vote NO for this budget and lets vote in new blood for the board.
Of course there is no requirement to increase the budget at all contingency or not. Important to remember though is after 2 NO votes, voters can not prevent the Board from implementing a maximum increase under the law. Don't assume a good faith effort from the Board to reduce costs.
So when Hankin states that adding back the 3 million+in salary freezes, this will force a 3.61% raise on the budget if we vote the budget down, this is really just more scare tactics because it is a scenario that realistically can't take place. But she threw it out there like it was a certainty if we dare go against her. Why can't they just deal straight with us?
After years of complaining, The School finally published their budget last week of 192M for under 7000 children. As a retired CIO of a Fortune 500 company you would think I could understand their figure? They have not used any generally accepted accounting principles in their published budget, so clearly in my opinion they are hiding facts from the taxpayers. This really should come as no suprise as this is the same Superintendent Carole Hankin that was on the Board of Directors and auditing committee of CUC International AKA Cendant during the largest accounting fraud and scandal in US history – until Enron? It appears that she was not even vetted by the School Board and yet they are paying her 500K of taxpayer money? This link shows that she was on the list of worst board of directors in 1998 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4070/is_n138/ai_21266123/pg_10/ This link shows when she resigned to the delight of the investors in 2000 http://money.cnn.com/2000/04/05/companies/cendant/ The School Board President is a dentist and probably has no idea how to read an operational budget, as most people - yet he stands by always and supports the budget. Syosset is hosed unless the resident taxpayer is willing to stand up and vote NO.
So the 168M was actual and the 186M was the forecast, therefore the School is asking for $22M more in this years budget than they spent last year which is an increase of over 14%. These accounting tricks were brought to us by none other than Carole Hankin, of Cendant accounting fraud fame, and illegal in the private sector. See: http://money.cnn.com/2000/04/05/companies/cendant/ So when anyone is concerned about a NO vote meaning we have no money for the kids, think again. We have 32M in reserves even if we go to Contingency. All this information can be found at LICARE.org Syosset Central School District 2010 186,390,847 Budget 168,895,296 actual expense last year (17,495,551) moved to reserves 32,869,582 total reserves
Are we going to let them get away with this? It sound like going to a contincency budget is a far cry from being a problem. Syosset School District needs a NIFA type organization. We have to Vote NO. There is no risk as the money is there(just hidden).
http://arkansased.org/about/pdf/sample_budgets.pdf This link is an example of what a school budget is supposed to look like (very simple example) and what should be made public. I am not familiar with NY law, however in Arkansas we have to show Actual verses Proposed. (please read the Instructions at the top, as this will make it clear) We call the actual category last years budgeted expenditures (same as actual). Looks like you have a dirty School Board
We are now being asked to budget for 192M? Isn't this 24M more than we spent last year? If the teachers are having a salary freeze, and we overbudgeted 17.5M dollars last year, isn't the school board asking us to budget for a lot more than we need? Why would any taxpayer vote for a 192M budget when there is no evidence that we need that much money Instead the evidence is that the budget should be about $20,000,000 less. Isn't this even worse than giving the governemt a tax free loan and then getting a refund on April 15th? In ths School tax situation the School just keeps the money and spends if we vote yes. We don't get overpayments back from the school like we do from the Treasury on April 15th. How can any fair minded American vote yes knowing that even if they could afford it themselves, it could hurt their fellow American taxpayer neighbor.
It seems that she answered a question about the use of technology in the 21st century like google, facebook and twitter and she rambled incoherently about the strides Syosset schools are making in keeping ahead by citing the teaching of Chinese to kindergarten students and Russian to our first graders. People from different parts of the country are laughing at all of the Syosset taxpayers for keeping her on. When is this going to end?