Post by Chris_Wendt on May 18, 2009 21:27:39 GMT -5
From the Long Island Press:
"School districts can hide substantial increases in spending by interchanging these terms on their budget proposals, a practice the Long Island Press discovered was rampant among many LI school districts.... Districts will simply state the smaller of the two figures when touting their fiscal responsibility and many times not mention the greater figure.
For example, Wantagh School District prominently features its tax levy of 4.35 percent, but not its 5.80 percent increase in total spending from last year. In contrast, Shoreham-Wading River School District touts its 3.76 percent change in total spending but fails to mention its estimated 26.85 percent increase in its proposed tax levy for next year. Other districts do the same. Neither district’s superintendent returned calls seeking comment as of press time.
(Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Executive Director, Lorraine) Deller says that it’s the expenditure figure taxpayers vote on and the figure most school districts list. She suggests that the scenario described by the Press may be less a veiled attempt at deceiving taxpayers to get the budget passed and rather an example of individual districts reflecting the desires of their respective communities. She emphasizes that overall the estimated budgets up for a vote next week are, 'The tightest we’ve ever seen, frankly.'"
This is what the outside world is saying about Wantagh. Out of 124 Long Island school districts, only Wantagh and Shoreham-Wading River get called out by the Press for the way our school board chose to slice the baloney.
Please join with me in my gross embarrassment over this beautiful report. Lorraine Deller and I worked closely together on school finance reform for over five years. Although she attempted to soft-pedal the board's intentions, this article is nothing less than an indictment of the very integrity of our school district. You should be really, really angry over that...not over the Press' publishing this expose`, and not over my and another poster sharing it with you, here. I mean, wake-up! This is all over town by now.
President Ralph Spagnolo must go! Unless you all enjoy reading these horror stories about YOUR school district.
There are more, even worse horror stories to come, after the budget passes.
Think long and hard about these things.
We need to pass our budget and vote Ralph Spagnolo out of office.
Chris Wendt
