LI school cuts may be sharpest in 20 years

As Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo readies plans for statewide curbs on educational spending and taxes, Long Island schools are bracing for losses of teachers and student services - potentially the sharpest in 20 years.

Threatened reductions in programs ranging from sports to tutoring are prompting school districts to call on Albany to relax laws known as mandates, which drive up educational costs. As examples, districts cite laws requiring detailed audits of minor district expenses, and others restricting districts' powers to extract pay concessions from unions in times of financial stress.

One such district is South Huntington. Over the past two years, officials there have eliminated 30 teacher slots and dozens of student clubs. Now, local officials say further state aid cuts could force their high school to reduce daily schedules from nine class periods to eight, along with time available for remedial instruction.

Jim Kaden, who is South Huntington's longtime school board president, says Albany should scrap a 29-year-old legal requirement that districts pay annual "step" raises to teachers, even when contracts expire. Otherwise, Kaden says, his board and others will not have the leverage needed to negotiate pay cuts and save money for student services.

"It certainly handcuffs boards in their negotiations to a large extent," said Kaden, a former president of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association.

Waiting on Cuomo budget

The future of public education will become clearer by Feb. 1 - Cuomo's deadline for unveiling his first state budget proposal. The plan is expected to reduce next year's school aid by at least $1 billion - a statewide loss of about 5 percent. One open question is whether the proposed cuts would be apportioned in the same way or differently in New York City and on Long Island - a hot-button issue for state lawmakers from both areas.

Cuomo also has promised to push for a cap on local property-tax increases of 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. Inflation currently is about 1.6 percent. On the Island, the plan could spell relief for homeowners who pay some of the nation's highest property taxes.

However, a cap could also mean that schools would be caught in a squeeze between reduced aid at the state level and lower tax revenues locally.

Cuomo, a Democrat, has pledged that any aid cuts would be apportioned in a way that is "targeted and fair," especially for poorer school districts. Political opponents predict the impact will be painful, nonetheless.

"Whatever the distribution is, we know it's not going to be pretty," said state Sen. John Flanagan (R-East Northport), chairman of the Senate's education committee.

Analysts who have done the math conclude that a combination of aid cuts and tax caps would almost certainly force most Island districts to cut staff and services. Elwood, for example, has told lawmakers that a 2-percent cap would force the district to cut its entire sports program along with all extracurricular activities, while also eliminating 60 teaching and other staff positions. The only districts not likely to be affected would be the wealthiest because they receive little state aid in the first place.

Schools aim to lessen pain

In an effort to avoid such a squeeze, regional school leaders are floating various ideas. Suffolk County superintendents have proposed a series of exemptions to Cuomo's cap - for example, by restricting tax increases only in districts where voters reject budgets.

Some Island representatives in the Democratic-controlled State Assembly support such exemptions. "It allows people to have a vote, and for the vote to really mean something," said Assemb. Steven Englebright (D-Setauket).

But state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), the Senate's majority leader, has nixed that approach, saying he supports a "hard" cap without exceptions.

Another idea is changing the legal provision mentioned by Kaden, known as the Triborough Amendment, to the state's Taylor Law. As written, it provides annual payment of "step" raises to unionized teachers and other public employees, even when their contracts expire.

Teacher representatives hotly defend the Triborough Amendment, contending that elimination would inevitably lead to more strikes. Any change in Albany this year is considered a political long shot. Still, supporters of change argue challenging times require drastic measures.

On Feb. 8, leaders from 30 Island districts have been invited to a meeting in Glen Head, where two of the region's leading school attorneys, John Gross and Gregory Guercio, plan to make the case for eliminating or reducing automatic annual "step" raises for teachers. The two contend this should be done both by legislative change in Albany, and also through tougher collective bargaining by district representatives locally.

"Their survival is at stake," Guercio said.