Supt. Talks Unfunded Mandates, Tax Cap, 2012-13 Program Cuts

were on the forefront of the minds of Lindenhurst residents, school administrators and Board of Education members at the .

They were also a key component to the updated overview of the Superintendent Richard Nathan presented to the more than 300 people that sat in the auditorium on .

Legislators - including New York State Assemblyman , State Senator , State Senator , State Assemblyman and Suffolk County Legislator - also listened as Nathan outlined the challenges the district is facing this budget season due to the new tax cap.

And they listened to the possible cuts that would have to made to meet the cap's two-percent guidelines.

The Mandates
In terms of newer , Nathan pointed to Governor Andrew Cuomo's desire to link the receipt of state aid to the adoption of a formal enhanced teacher evaulation process (APPR).

He said it takes money to develop a evaluation program like this: "It could easily run $100,000."

Nathan also pointed out two more new :

• The scoring of state exams: The state wants districts to send out the scoring of these tests instead of having them scored in district.
• The sharing of special education preschool costs: Districts will now have to pay a third of those costs along with the county and state.

legislators about unfunded mandates that were being promoted by Cuomo, and other older ones like Race to the Top handed down by the New York State Education Department.

They assured and educators they'll take up this fight to get some mandate relief in the 2012-13 NYS budget when they head back to Albany in March.

Legislators, including and Fuschillo, were also hopeful they could get some $250 million that Cuomo is setting aside for competitive grants put back into the tax-cap formula in order to ease the struggles districts like Lindenhurst are facing this year.

Furthermore, Sweeney told Lindenhurst Patch he believes the $1.6 million in state aid for Lindy schools for next school year should increase as legislators hammer out the new state budget.

And he told Patch he'd be open to discussing exactly what unfunded mandates could be hurting the district, and he and his fellow legislators implored educators to provide a specific list.

In the Meantime
However, there currently isn't relief, the tax cap is a reality and school budget season is upon Lindenhurst again.

While the BOE opted to save many programs that were on the chopping block last year, dipping into reserves and sending out a $140.2 million budget and a 6.98 percent increase in the tax levy that was approved by voters, this year the district will likely have to stay within the two-percent tax-cap guidelines set forth by NYS.

As Nathan put it, since only a fraction of eligible voters turn out every year to vote (in 2011, 4,180 of approximately 28,000 eligible voters turned out; 2,154 voted yes, 2,026 voted no), it's highly unlikely that the district would receive a 60 percent supermajority vote to approve a budget that went north of the cap.

Given that reality Nathan pointed to several programs from last year's presentation that could be cut this year, including:

• The dance, media, and gifted and talented (Orion) programs.
• JROTC.
• Elementary music.
• Fine arts and technology electives.
• Home economics.
• Introductory to world languages.

Full-day kindergarten was also back on the list, though Nathan sees that as a last alternative since that would change the curriculum from elementary through 12th grade.

He mentioned the reduction of secondary school days being reduced from nine periods to eight, and an increase in class sizes.

Nathan also pointed out the cost of athletics in the district, from seventh grade to varsity teams: $1,039,857. However, he also sees that as another last-resort cut since Lindy is a community that has an affinity for athletics.

(For a fuller picture see the PDF of Nathan's presentation above. See also the tax cap flier PDF for an explanation of the cap's implications that was handed out at Nathan's first 2012-13 budget overview on November 16.)

Plea for Relief
BOE President Ed Murphy, Jr. further implored legislators to restore state aid and repeal the tax cap after outlining financial struggles the district is facing for the 2012-13 school year, such as being mandated to pay expected increases in (10 percent-plus), pension costs (10 percent-plus) and step raise inceases (three percent-plus).

"Districts need legislative help to make the tax cap a reality, not a calamity," Nathan added.

Editor's Note: This is the last in Lindenhurst Patch's series of coverage of the Q-and-A session at the Sixth Annual Legislative Breakfast on , and reaction to the event.

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