Massapequa Superintendent Addresses Budget, Trustee Elections

This story was posted by Edward Robinson. It was written and reported by Chris Boyle.

Superintendent Charles Sulc addressed the successful approval of the Massapequa school district’s 2013-2014 budget last week, saying that the degree of community approval was a triumph for area school kids.

“The number of people who came out to support the budget was a wonderful success story in that 69.5 percent of the people voted yes to our budget,” he said. “It was the seventh highest number of ‘yes’ votes that we’ve ever had since 1969 in Massapequa, so the amount of support we had Tuesday night was tremendous. We’d really like to thank the community for lending us their support.” 

Speaking at last week's school board meeting, Sulc said by voting for the spending plan, the community has ensured that the high-quality education that they have come to expect from Massapequa Schools will be almost completely preserved in its entirety.

“We have wonderful, wonderful programs for children...we tried our hardest to preserve everything that was important for kids, and with the support of the Board of Education and the community, we were able to do that,” he said. “There’s very little taken out of this budget in terms of what we do provide for kids, and that’s an important factor.”

However, Sulc put aside his praise of the community for a moment as he pointed out that, despite the overwhelming support for next year’s budget, its approval was, in reality, only brought about by an small percentage of the district's overall population. 

“I want to talk about the number of people who come out to vote in Massapequa, and the number who came out on Tuesday was lower than it was the year before...realistically, we’re only seeing about ten percent of registered voters coming out,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling...unfortunately, turnout across Long Island was low. What it is, we don’t know, but we can speculate that people believe that the Tax Cap is doing its job so they’re not coming out to vote, and that’s unfortunate.” 

What it is that they’re really voting for is what their kids get,” Sulc continued. “People need to take more interest in what’s going on.” 

Sulc also addressed the outcome of the Board of Education Trustee election held on the same evening as the budget vote, won by current Board Vice President Timothy Taylor. 

“We had a write-in vote for School Board Trustee, and Mr. Taylor has been re-elected to a new three-year term,” he said. “I want to offer my congratulations to him.” 

Meanwhile, Robert Schilling, Executive Director for Assessment, Student Data and Technology Services, gave a presentation of Massapequa’s Technology Plan for 2013 through 2016, which included updates on the District’s initiatives to increase the scope of it’s wireless networks, it’s server capacity, and the widespread adoption Haiku Learning Management and Google Apps for Education programs, as well as iPads and laptop computers for students. 

The board also honored 41 district staff members who were granted tenure that evening, a group comprised of teachers, teacher’s assistants, and administrative positions.

 “These are individuals who have given the school district two or three years of outstanding service and they have proved themselves worthy of this designation,” Sulc said. “For the work they have done with our community and our kids, we want to recognize them with tenure...and we want to give that same commitment back to them.”