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I help develop the budget(s). The year over year rise is based on 4 distinct things:
1. contractually mandated pension contributions.
2. contractually mandated salary increases.
3. contractually mandated benefits increases (i.e health and insurance premium increases).
4. Fed and State education mandates like No Child Left Behind, technology, etc and Special Ed IEP requirements (although many of these are funded by fed govt grants).
Bottom line is teachers are excessively overcompensated on LI with compensation increasing even in down economies.
Zero, not one penny to improve or expand programs for kids (except those mandated by the state or feds). Zero, zip, nada. And every year student programs are held at knifepoint to help get the budgets passed.
Thank you. I look at the proposed budget each year and am shocked at how little of the increase goes toward instructional costs. Our school district buries the salary and benefit increases in some blandly named general budget category that they think will make it difficult for taxpayers to figure out where the money is going. It's pathetic.
Our district also has declining enrollment and rising budgets, so we now pay over $35K a year for each child to be educated. Also within the budget is the hiring of a PR firm to make the school district and the overpaid superintendent look good. Many Long Islanders may not realize that they are paying for these PR firms to try and bamboozle taxpayers into voting for the budget and not ask the hard questions. You can usually tell which districts use them by the elaborate web sites, slick newsletters and flowery language extolling every single small achievement of little Johnny and his classmates. Districts are usually willing to shell out a minimum of several thousand dollars a year on such firms at the same time parents must hold bake sales to raise money for after-school programs.
Status:
"Let this year be over..."
(set 20 days ago)
Location: Where my bills arrive
19,219 posts, read 17,085,392 times
Reputation: 15538
Why debate anything? No district will ever consider consolidating with anyone. Parents fight over their district being .0001% higher than an adjoining district. Bright ambitious kids do well regardless of the schools and mediocre kids are still mediocre even in the best districts. One principal I know once said it is better to have a smart child in an average school than a smart child in a high end school because their is less competition for scholarship money.
I would really like to see one elected official say here is the budget, were not raising taxes, make it work! I know keep dreaming.
Why debate anything? No district will ever consider consolidating with anyone. Parents fight over their district being .0001% higher than an adjoining district. Bright ambitious kids do well regardless of the schools and mediocre kids are still mediocre even in the best districts. One principal I know once said it is better to have a smart child in an average school than a smart child in a high end school because their is less competition for scholarship money.
I would really like to see one elected official say here is the budget, were not raising taxes, make it work! I know keep dreaming.
Cuomo to some extent did that with the 2% school levy increase cap- roughly translates into a 3% cap for taxpayers.
It's causing layoffs and program cuts island-wide. The salaries and benefits of tenured well performing teachers in contractual and untouchable.
With this in mind, there is no way to move forward without increasing tax revenue year after year.
That either comes from a commercial base (mostly non-existent) or residential.
Or... Federal and State money, which seems to be at an all time low.
Why debate anything? No district will ever consider consolidating with anyone. Parents fight over their district being .0001% higher than an adjoining district. Bright ambitious kids do well regardless of the schools and mediocre kids are still mediocre even in the best districts. One principal I know once said it is better to have a smart child in an average school than a smart child in a high end school because their is less competition for scholarship money.
I would really like to see one elected official say here is the budget, were not raising taxes, make it work! I know keep dreaming.
Sachem went thru 3 years in the past few where tax increases were 0.00, -0.20, and 0.20
The average middle class schmoes should rally together and price gouge teachers and cops.
Plumbers, landscapers, carpenters, pool guys etc...give 'em a taste of their own medicine.
I believe a good school district like Manhasset gets their taxes subsidized by the Americana. Are you willing to have your town inundated with such traffic?
I believe a good school district like Manhasset gets their taxes subsidized by the Americana. Are you willing to have your town inundated with such traffic?
But it's hardly "in town" - it's on 25A, which is going to have a lot of traffic no matter what. Manhasset also has a thriving downtown.
Fair enough, but if private sector businesses were managed like our schools, I don't believe the business would be flourishing.
Three Village has increased each year between $1.9 to $2.5 million.
And just about everyone would like to be in that S.D.
They will pay reguardless of the increases. Anything for little Johnny & to keep the home values.
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