Make school voting easy, not harder

In a climate of redrawing political election districts and voter suppression allegations, I was surprised and upset to see that the Sachem school district eliminated all of its 10 elementary schools as polling places and opened just one middle school for the school budget vote [“Most districts get OK for budget," News, May 20].

I have voted for and supported every school budget for about 30 years and find this decision by the Sachem school board to be disgraceful and a slap in the face to all residents who support the school district, especially those with disabilities and the elderly.

The school budget controls every part of our students' academic lives as well as the taxes homeowners pay. Therefore, making voting more convenient should be the school board's goal, not making it more difficult.

Tuesday night's turnout was an example of how the elimination of polling places reduced turnout. Last year's Sachem budget turnout was 5,308 voters, this year with one polling place, the turnout was about cut in half at 2,558. The incoming board should reverse this horrible decision and return the polling places back to the people.

Jim Kiernan, Holbrook

The writer is a former Sachem Central School District board president.

Students can't paint on school property

The Half Hollow Hills school district made numerous mistakes leading up to this resolution [“Settlement for former HS student," News, May 13]. A parking spot is school property. No student should be allowed to paint over school property. In any other public space, this would be considered graffiti no matter the content of the art.

The policy permitting students to paint parking spots was wrong. Also, the student spent two weeks before the start of the school year decorating her designated senior parking spot. Didn't anyone from the school administration notice? Why didn't they discuss the issues with her art before it was complete?

Finally, it's understood the school district wanted to avoid the expense of further litigation, which is why they settled, but why $125,000? That's a large expense, even if covered by the district's insurance policy. It will ensure higher rates going forward, if the school's insurance policy is even renewed by the same carrier.

The words of the lone trustee dissenter, who objected to the settlement, ring true: "Outside activists and lawyers tried to sow division ... this lawsuit poured salt into the slow-healing wound that opened in September 2024."

Annie Mendelson, Great Neck

Protect taxpayers by not caving to unions

We are constantly reading about how expensive it is to live in New York [“Nearing deal to sweeten retirement benefits," News, May 13]. Maybe it's because our government continues to cave to the government unions.

Now, they are reversing the savings created by Tier 6, which was supposed to tame retirement costs. This reversal will be paid for by increases in local taxes. Not a single taxpayer voted for this giveaway. This as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has abandoned logical work rule changes for the Long Island Rail Road, rules that cost state taxpayers millions of dollars a year. Want to lower costs in New York? Stop caving to public unions and protect the taxpayers.

Rob Leonardo, Rockville Center

Mamdani pension idea a Ponzi scheme

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is proposing "balancing" his budget by destabilizing the pension funds that the city's civil servants depend on in retirement [“State's $4B halts property tax hike," Long Island & NYC, May  13]. His plan for "pension amortization" is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme.

To carry out this scheme and call it "savings," Mamdani needs four boards to opt in: the city Employees' Retirement System, Teachers' Retirement System, city Fire Pension Fund and the Board of Education Retirement System. None of the main unions has committed their support.

This doesn't reduce costs, it delays them in the short term and increases them in the long term, saddling future generations with the debt while politicians spend today. This is how public pension plans found themselves in the same funding morass for decades, perpetually decades away from paying off debt.

If Mamdani wants to spend lavishly, he should make that case and identify revenue sources to support his utopia rather than delaying current obligations and passing the costs on to future taxpayers. Otherwise, as they had said in the Soviet Union, "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work."

Marc Schenck, Albertson