Wyandanch board OKs $73.3M budget for revote
Wyandanch school board President James Crawford is shown at Friday night's special board meeting in the district's Central Administration Building. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
The Wyandanch school board late Friday approved putting a $73.3 million budget for the coming school year before voters on June 18 — a cap-busting spending plan that will have to pull a 60 percent supermajority for approval.
The spending plan carries a 20 percent tax increase, far above the district's 0.95 percent tax-cap limit. It was not clear what cuts in staff or student services the proposed budget would require.
The board's vote was 6-0, with one trustee not present, and came in the last 10 to 15 minutes of a board meeting that lasted about 4 1/2 hours.
Board president James Crawford, asked afterward how the district plans to rally support for the spending plan, said, "We're going to rely on old-school methods, like knocking on some doors."
He added that usage of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, also may be part of the effort.
Officials did not yet know when a public hearing will be held on the trimmed-down $73,338,117 spending plan, as required by state law.
Crawford said he may give what he called a "State of the District" address a few days before the revote.
Wyandanch residents crowded a special meeting of the school board Friday night at the Central Administration Building. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Dozens of Wyandanch residents packed the special school board meeting and much of the discussion centered on a revamped $70.9 million budget that Superintendent Mary Jones and board members were considering. That plan would have meant $5.9 million in trims across 26 areas, including elimination of teaching and social worker positions, reductions in sports and outsourcing of security and transportation.
Administrators allowed the community to weigh in, with board members saying they needed help in deciding whether to back the spending plan. During part of the meeting, trustees painstakingly went over the district's spending, line item by line item.
The Wyandanch board had faced a deadline Tuesday to decide on a revamped budget to put before voters on June 18.
The meeting at the district's Central Administration Building on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard was the third such special session since voters last week rejected the initial $77.8 million proposed budget for the 2019-20 school year.
Under the revised $70.9 million spending plan under consideration earlier, the projected tax hike would have been 9 percent, district officials said. As with the budget defeated by voters on May 21, that increase also would have exceeded the district's tax cap.
The board also talked Friday night of another possibility — going immediately to a bare-bones contingency budget of slightly more than $69 million. Under that scenario, taxes would remain at the current year's level.
Jones said cuts to that level would place core academic programs in peril.
“We cannot run the district as is on $69 million,” she said to the room of about 75 attendees.
The district's initial budget, rejected in the May 21 vote, carried a 40.93 percent tax increase. It drew 332 "no" votes to 149 "yes" votes.
Wyandanch was the only budget reported to have been defeated among Long Island's 124 school systems on May 21.
