2012/13 Proposed Budget

[lilly]

OK, where is it?

....along with response to BAC reco's, community forums beyond the usual May budget hearing, the line item details, etc.

I'm reading about other districts issuing proposed budgets but nothing from Wantagh. I thought it would happen at a BOE meeting, but I only see one BOE planning session on the BOCES vote for this week.

Has anyone heard anything?

And nice to have the kiddoes back in school as of yesterday. Hope everyone had a great vacation week.

[Chris_Wendt]

There is a BoE meeting at 8:00 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, April 18th. No agenda is posted yet. Time is growing short for the adoption of a budget prior to the May 15th vote.

Time is also growing short for any public planning session where the Board would be discussing with the Administration the actual development of the budget, in view of the public. Sorry for using the word "public" twice in the same sentence, but it is a word so seldom used in Wantagh that is deserves a little exercise, even if only in utter futility.

I think it would have been informative for the public to hear the Board members' individual reactions to each BAC recommendation, and to see how they tried to accommodate them. You know, which board members supported which BAC recommendations, and which board members did not support which other BAC recommendations, and why or why not.

Oh, I almost forgot, I would have especially liked to have seen and heard the Superintendent's personal guidance to the Board members about each one of the BAC recommendations.

I would love to set the expectation in the public mind that, at tomorrow's meeting we will hear a healthy listing of many BAC recommendations that have been accepted and either put into or taken out of the next school budget as appropriate.

I have a feeling that if I hold too tight to that foolish notion that my heart may be broken before the night is over.

What am I thinking? For eighteen of the nineteen years I served on the Board, we kept those boardroom doors closed and locked tight against the prying eyes and eager ears of that nosy public!

The one year we opened those doors and let in the public, we cut two million dollars out of the budget (with public input) which resulted in a ZERO increase. The things you can accomplish with public input!

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

Tonight's BOE meeting is on the hard copy district calendar. It was not on the website as of yesterday (prob was too many items for it to appear) but on there as of this morning.

[Chris_Wendt]

Unfortunately, the agenda is not on the website, and neither are any of the required financial forms, or the budget, presuming that the budget may be on the agenda.

Well, there are now more than 8 hours until the meeting....

Chris Wendt

[Chris_Wendt]

The agenda for tonight's meeting is now posted on the district website.

Some financial reports are also posted, but the budget is not.

The budget is on the agenda, in the form of a gross dollar amount. According to the Public Officers Law amendment which took effect in February, all reports on the agenda are supposed to be available to the public before the meeting. Perhaps they will have printed copies when we arrive.

Perhaps not.

Chris Wendt

[lilly]

Well Chris, hope the let-down or your bubble bursting isn't too much.

The proposed budget is supposedly posted on the district website as of tonight. I couldn't find it anywhere, so if you can find it, please let me know when they post it. I did take a hard copy from the meeting.

It looks like every single BAC recommendation was summarily dismissed/ignored. And if you look closely at some of the line items, there is a wealth of bad PR in this proposed budget that can be had.

No comment on when response to BAC recos will be available. (In light of ignoring them, I guess they figure no rush for that fall-out.) No community meetings. No public polling of BOE trustees on how they voted/felt about the individual reco's (although after watching them in action over time, you can make a very educated guess).

Highlights of the evening were the % tax increase is supposed to come in under the 2% cap (revenue was not attached to the hard copy so I can't quote the figure). Very nice seeing the parade of kids for science accomplishments. SEPTA doing some good (new) stuff.

Lowlights of the evening were the parade of sports kids (...and the ka-ching, ka-ching reminder at that expensive price per head while the BOE/district ignores other types of kids. Thank you BOE/admins for continuing divisiveness in the community.). The budget PR-fluff in the 'What's New in Wantagh' (which I happened to grab from my mail pile and read at the meeting). And a budget that wants to double the amount spent on that wonderful PR, lol. And last but not least, a questionable action from one of the principals through its PTA - asking parents to contact Albany bc there will be no field trips anymore bc of APPR? It was something to that effect and has got to cross some sort of line and perhaps a PTA by-law.

[kathyt]

I have to clarify that there was not an email sent by the principal. What happened at the PTA meeting was education of the APPR.
This started a conversation among PTA members that brought that discussion to Facebook.
I spoke with the Nassau County PTA and found out exactly what the PTA can do to raise awareness and educate parents.
No PTA by laws were crossed.

I thought it was wonderful to see recognition of students in both the science AND sports programs at the meeting tonight. Let's hope we continue to recognize all the students. *maybe the ones even in the elementary grades* wouldn't thatbe great!!

[Chris_Wendt]

The Budget is posted on line. I could not find it, either, not under the tab, Budget Documents. I did find it under the tab: Board of Education, Board Documents and Information, Board Agendas, 2011-12 School Year, file: 4-18-12 Proposed Budget to Public (pdf)

My personal take, at first glance, which was straight to the bottom line, is good work for fulfilling the primary objective of beating the tax cap, and embracing the spirit as well as the letter of the law, the sole reason for adopting the 'Two Percent Tax Cap' having been protection of the taxpayers.

I can and do support this budget, without any urgent necessity to take it apart, line-by-line, recognizing that the people responsible for it have done that already, and have now presented us with a reasonable final product of their collective work.

I have no sense of let-down on this; my expectations have been met. If I were sensitive to bursting bubbles, I would have gone home and stayed home many, many years ago.

Although the BAC recommendations have not yet been addressed, and this is not the thread for doing that, I feel this year's BAC process had value and impact on the final budget product.

Roseanne Careri, former President of the Board of Education once told me, constructively: "You may not always get the answer you want, and sometimes you just have to accept the answer that is given, but you should not stop asking questions." Definitely among the best pieces of advice I ever received.

That, and "don't blow bubbles in the auditorium...they may burst in public!"

Say, anybody heard anything about a new superintendent?

Chris Wendt