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| 6/26/2009 | Email this article • Print this article | GASD board's disregard for public deplorable
Recorder News Staff
A resolution Wednesday from the Greater Amsterdam School District Board of Education that essentially gave the community permission to raise money to restore modified sports in the district could be described as a slap in the face.
We prefer to think of it as the board giving the community the finger.
Two efforts by the board to pass a budget that carried an 11.19 percent tax increase were shot down by voters. That spending proposal kept modified sports intact.
The board responded by adopting a contingency budget that still carries a double-digit tax increase, 10.16 percent, but eliminates the modified sports program. That move infuriated the public, and many of them attended Wednesday's meeting to express their displeasure with the school board's decision.
Board members reacted by essentially ignoring them, refusing to consider pleas asking them to find other areas of the budget to cut. Worse, school board President Gina DeRossi turned the tables by blaming the voters for the elimination of modified sports because they didn't approve the budget the board wanted.
A response like that makes us wonder if the school district eliminated modified sports just to stick it to the voters who rejected the original spending plan not once, but twice. It certainly appears that way.
Now it's up to the community to pick up the ball dropped by the GASD. We are confident enough money will be raised to restore modified sports this year, although we question whether the community can raise this kind of money every year, especially if the school district continues to increase taxes by double digits.
We also can't help but worry that if the community succeeds in restoring modified sports, the board will consider cutting other programs and activities, banking on the community to pay for those on top of paying high taxes for the district. Given the actions of this board over the past few weeks, we wouldn't put it past them.
Right now, public confidence in the GASD school board is low, and it should be. Board members have forgotten that they were not only elected to look out for the best interests of the schools, but also for the people who foot the bill.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, June 26, 2009
Article comment by:
Gina DeRossi
This editorial is deplorable. It is preposterous on many accounts.
First of all, my comment about our budget including modified sports (amongst other things that had to be cut, which aren't mentioned at all) was in response to someone who said maybe the elections should be held after the budget is passed. I made the point that the budget the board passed had all of these items in it (including modified sports).
I then mentioned that the cuts were outlined in the budget materials and the public chose to vote it down twice.
I would also like to point out that less than half of the tax increases actually comes from the school budget. Our proposed budget carried a 4.54% increase and the contingency (set by the state) is a 4.16% increase. The rest of the increase comes from real property taxes, which the school district has no control over, yet gets blamed for regularly.
What the voters voted on was 0.38%, which meant major cuts for the district, but would have meant very little to the taxpayers' bottom line.
The public was not ignored. We asked our business manager if it was even plausible to cut 0.1% from every line item in the budget and were informed it was not. Some are set in stone and others are at a bare minimum due to the fact that we cut a total of $1.5 million out of what our budget should have been for the best interests of the district and community.
It was really great talking with some people in the community recently who actually realize what a difficult position the board is in and how horrible our economic times are right now. They know that cutting activities and programs are among the last things I would ever consider, but we also have a duty to educate our students and that is suffering as well with six educational positions cut out of the budget, not to mention two custodians, etc. We have state mandates that we must follow, by law.
No one mentioned this, but I also was the only board member that publically volunteered to help with the fundraising efforts. I am sure others will be happy to help as well, but I publically offered my time to the cause. That was conveniently left out as well.
We did not "take away" modified sports in spite of anything. It was a very difficult and painful decision and anyone who thinks otherwise, does not know me or some of the other board members very well.
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