Archive: News

In Last night's Board of Education meeting Martha Laux challenged each individual board member to explain why they think the budget failed.  Here are their answers:

Glenn Swanson:  I've read all the surveys.  I think it's a general tax fatigue related not only to school taxes, but to other taxes that people have limited control over.  There's the pending sewer project, people are thinking about the capital project, there are water lines being put in.  People are concerned about rising taxes.  A lot of the comments weren't specifically about the school, they were about taxes.

Turnout was down this year.  I think part of it was the two school board seats were uncontested.  And I think there's a misunderstanding about the role of the Director of Curriculum and Instruction is.  What is that person supposed to do?  There were a lot of questions about that.

Anne Drake:  My opinion is that, in talking to the community, taxes are too high, we're administration top heavy, we have too much emphasis on the sports programs, and I believe there is a distrust of the Superintendent.  Hopefully we'll be able to fix this.  

Tom Keane: My sense of the survey responses we've received and the community input we've had so far is that there has been the full range of comments and reactions.  The main themes that I take out of the discussion is that folks are concerned about taxes, and this is the only place where they can actually influence it directly.  This is the place where we can all vote on taxes.  You can't vote on County taxes or Federal taxes.  You can vote for legislators, but you can't actually vote on the budgets themselves.

I think people are concerned about the capital project and increases that will entail, and if there is that increase plus this increase we want to try to keep this increase as small as possible.  Lack of communication is a theme I've heard pretty clearly throughout this whole process.

And also the low voter turnout.  My sense is that we had about 650 voters this year.  I think it was closer to around 800 last year when we had a contested election, we had signs out and people talking and thinking about this.  Having a contested election is really important for the community.  It's the single basic reason I ran four years ago.  Because it didn't look like there was going to be any contested election, and I said 'That's just not good for the community.'

Sandy Dhimitri:  In terms of what I heard reading the surveys and also making a point to be out more in the last week and talking to people about why the budget failed, I think a big chunk of it is that it's the only place where you get to vote 'no' on taxes.  It was interesting.  I heard 'I voted no because you are cutting a teacher.'  'I voted no because you always give the teachers what they want and you need to take control and stop spending so much.'  

'I voted no because you spend more on cost per student than any other district.'  'I voted no because you don't spend enough.'  It's a mix of things.

Also communication was a big factor.  I talked to somebody today who has children in the district and I think cares very much about education who was in the buildings the day of the election, but forgot to vote.  SO I think shame on us for not getting the word about the vote out more.

I think some people voted no because they didn't understand the information about that they did get, and they thought a no vote at least would get clarification on that.  So communication is a big one.

I also think there was definitely a move afoot to stop the capital project process.  And if we vote no on the budget people thought that would be the wake-up call before the capital project.  So I think there's a whole bunch of different reasons why people voted no.

A number of people I've talked to one on one said it's very hard to come here to this microphone and say, 'I can't afford to live in this town any more.  That's a reality for a chunk of our population.  That we are pricing people -- not just we -- County taxes and other things are pricing people out of this community and this is a chance to try to stop that.

Christine Iacobucci:  I can't really add much to what my colleagues have just said.  The trust one was probably the one that concerned me the most.  I remember one comment I quickly read through said that people started to get worried after the fifth grade decision.  I have had a chance to contact Board members in Trumansburg, because their budget was defeated last year, to ask them what their process was.

They had several, three or four, very lengthy open sessions with their community.  They said that the discussions about cuts and how they were to be made was done in public sessions so that the invested parties could dialog with the Board.

I actually had a conversation with a Board member today, who said that any cuts they made to the second proposal had total buy-in from their community because the community was part of that process.  So I guess I would respectfully disagree with people who said that the process doesn't matter.  I think very much that the process does matter.  In fact that's why we have a Board of Education, so that everyone sitting at this table represents our community.  

Another interesting thing for me is that Dryden, a couple of years ago, formed a budget committee.  There was an issue of trust in their community and that's how they sought to deal with that.  Also in Trumansburg they have a citizen's advisory counsel that was formed after their budget was defeated.  I've heard that this council is Trumansburg's best cheer leading group.  They have a motto that says 'Strong schools and strong communities working together to make our school dollars go further.'

I guess my own personal advice for the future is that maybe Lansing can invest in some way to involve the community all along.

Dan Brown:  Christine's point on involving people in the budget process is exactly right.  I've been saying that our budget process since I've been on the board isn't what it needs to be.  A lot of the problem, though, relates to our door that we have up the road that keeps changing, and the fact that we end up with different business administrators all the time.  

You look at this situation where Dr. Lewis was hired at the beginning of January.  We pushed him two months on trying to decide whether to vote on the capital project, which in the end we postponed because it made sense to do so.  But all that time should have been spent working on the budget, and it didn't happen.  And it needs to happen in the future.

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