Hearing on Elmont budget revote tonight

Embattled Elmont school officials have called a 7 p.m. public hearing Wednesday night to explain and defend their decision to schedule a revote on the same $78.5 million budget with a 6.87 percent tax increase that was rejected by voters on May 15.

That projected tax increase exceeds the state's new tax cap -- which is 1.89 percent in Elmont's case -- and the district failed to win the 60 percent voter majority required for approval.

District representatives said Wednesday that the hearing would be held at Stewart Manor Country Club, 51 Salisbury Ave., Stewart Manor, not at Stewart Manor Elementary School, as was announced Friday by the district's public-relations firm, Syntax.

Carolyn Basedow, a secretary in the office of Elmont's school superintendent, said that the district had always planned to hold the hearing at the country club, and that the address error was apparently due to a mistaken assumption by Syntax.

Elmont, a midsized elementary district on the Nassau-Queens border, is the only Long Island school system to schedule a revote on a budget that would override a tax cap set by state formula, and the decision is catching considerable heat from some local residents. Six other area districts that failed to override caps on May 15 have announced revotes on lowered budgets that stay within caps.

Some residents also have objected to the Elmont board's decision to approve a revote at a hastily called meeting on the night of May 23 that was not posted on the district website. Newsday had checked with a district representative on May 21, and was not told of the board's meeting until a reporter checked back on May 24.

"I think it's shameful," said Pat Nicolosi, vice president of the Elmont library board and a frequent critic of the school district's spending habits.

Schools Superintendent Albert Harper has noted, on the other hand, that the district's first attempt to pass its budget garnered a better than 56 percent majority at the polls.

"We came very, very close to the 60 percent," Harper said. "In addition, I and the school board reached out to community leaders, and one of the things the board discussed in detail is that we as a community cannot afford to cut the academic program for our children."

The superintendent added that the board's May 23 meeting was announced more than 24 hours in advance on fliers posted in eight district buildings.

Some school supporters in the community have contended, moreover, that unusual circumstances unique to the Elmont community might have reduced voter support. Aubrey Phillips, a former school-board president, speculated that some residents of the district's Stewart Manor neighborhood might have been angered by a recent library-board decision to close a branch library in their area, and might have vented their frustration by voting "no" on the school budget.

For that reason, Phillips said, Wednesday night's public hearing in Stewart Manor might help build public support for the budget.

"I believe, if Stewart Manor is told directly about the situation in the school district, they would do the right thing," Phillips said.

Nicolosi said later that he did not think the library branch closing had any influence on the school vote, adding that the school district should have focused more on paring costs.

Elmont enrolls about 3,700 students, and is one of the Island's most racially and ethnically diverse. About half of all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, due to modest family incomes, and there is little commercial property, so the bulk of property taxes fall on homes.