Every since the State legislature’s approval of Gov. Cuomo’s 2 percent tax cap, school districts across Long Island have been coping with the reality of living within the 2 percent cap. The collective bargaining units of some school districts wisely chose to freeze or reduce salary increases in order to preserve faculty jobs so they could continue to provide quality educational programs for their students.
The union leaders in Herricks have chosen a different path. For years they have told us that the budget increases are for “the children” and have brainwashed the public into believing that a vote against the school budget was a vote against education. Nothing could be further from the truth. These self-serving demagogue’s have drawn on the emotions of parents to gain approval of hefty budget increases while hiding their primary goal of padding their own paychecks. Over the last two years the school board has been forced to cut 85 staff positions and is faced with the possible elimination of another 25 to 28 positions. A significant number of these staff reductions could have been avoided if the district’s union leaders had simply agreed to limit total salary increases to within the 2 percent cap. Instead they have chosen to jeopardize our educational program.
Our district employs some of the finest educators on Long Island and our district ranks among the nation’s best. As a former school board member it sickens me to watch as the quality of our district is challenged. While the reductions of the last two years may never be fully restored, there is still time to prevent a further deterioration of the quality of our educational program. The superintendent, the school board, PTA’s, parents and most importantly, the district employees themselves should demand the union leader’s open up new contract talks and agree to keep total salary increases within the 2 percent cap. We can avoid another “Fiscal Cliff,” maintain teaching positions and preserve the quality of our educational program or we can continue our decline. The choice is an obvious one, but do we have the courage to make it?
Keith DiMarco
Searingtown
