Wainscott schools tweak budget plan ahead of revote
Wainscott schools Superintendent Deborah Haab at a school board meeting Thursday. Next month, the district will put a slightly reduced budget plan before voters than the one that failed May 16. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Wainscott's tiny school district has scheduled a June 20 revote on a budget slightly reduced from the one rejected by voters earlier this month.
The revised budget, unanimously approved by Wainscott's three-member board on Thursday, would provide $6,144,331 in spending for the 2023-24 school year, which starts July 1. That's $17,000 less than the proposal rejected in the first round of balloting on May 16.
Despite the trim, Wainscott's revamped budget represents an overall increase of 48.8% from the current school year's budget of $4,127,568. And it would raise total property-tax collections, known as a levy, by 65.6%, district officials said.
Eye-popping fluctuations in school taxes are not uncommon in small East End districts such as Wainscott, which educates 28 young students in its elementary schoolhouse, while sending another 92 students to secondary schools in surrounding districts. This year, an additional 20 students moved into the district, driving up enrollments and taxation even more.
District representatives said higher costs also were driven by the addition of several special-education students who required extra services.
"So you can see that this extra expense is not discretionary in any way," said David Eagan, the district's board president who won reelection handily this year. "That is the message we have to be sure our taxpayers understand."
To deal with shifting costs, Wainscott frequently seeks voter overrides of restrictions set by the state's strict tax-cap law. Override attempts have succeeded at least three times in the recent past. But on May 16, the district fell a bit short.
A total of 91 voters supported the original budget of $6,161,331, with 56 voters opposed. That represented a majority of 58.3% — three votes short of the 60% needed to pierce the cap.
Wainscott was one of only two districts on Long Island, of 124, where budget votes failed. West Hempstead was the other.
Wainscott's reconfigured plan for spending and taxation remains well outside cap limits, so a 60% majority also will be required on June 20.
Voting will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. at the new schoolhouse, 47 Main St., Wainscott.
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
