With 'Perfect Storm' Brewing in School Budget Season, Educators Plan to Gather on Saturday

As the potential realities of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed property tax cap begin to set in with school districts across the state, about 200 school leaders from 36 districts across Suffolk County will meet with elected officials on Saturday to develop advocacy strategies for funding issues.

State Sen. John Flanagan, R-Smithtown, and Assemb. Steve Englebright, D-East Setauket, are slated to attend the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association meeting Saturday morning at the Sherwood Instructional Support Center in Holbrook.

In a statement outlining the goals of the advocacy workshop, the SCSSA stressed "the importance of Long Island speaking with one voice to the rest of the state."

"Before the law is enacted, you want to lobby the representatives to put in certain things to make the law less arduous," said Three Village interim superintendent Neil Lederer, a past SCSSA president.

Riverhead Superintendent Nancy Carney said she plans on attending with three Board of Education members: Board President Ann Cotten-DeGrasse, and Board Members Angela DeVito, and Kathy Berezny. While Carney said the 2011-2012 budget has been a work in progress for quite some time, Saturday's meeting will offer an opportunity for educators to focus on the issue as a group, as opposed to each district facing its challenges alone.

"This could be a dire situation for many school districts," Carney said on Friday afternoon. "We've obviously been expecting it, and we're already working on a budget. But it's not going to be business as usual any more. A property tax cap could have great impacts on the operations of the district and the things we can offer."

Carney said one problem school districts are facing in their budget planning is that Cuomo's proposal is not yet set in stone, leaving administrators if there may be some exclusions to a two percent cap, or if it would be definite. She said by the beginning of next month, she's hoping the governor will have come up with clearer details.

Carney added that the biggest challenge in meeting a cap in raised spending is the rising cost of employee benefits, while at the same time losing federal aid. She cited an approximate 12 percent jump in costs in the coming year. School financial records show previous jumps of 3, 15, and 1 percent in the previous three school years, respectively.Last year's stimulus money, she added, covered between 11 and 12 faculty positions.

"People are saying the perfect storm is occurring with budgets," Carney said. "Imposing a cap on top of that makes it an even more challenging budget season."

The superintendent said that she plans to begin presenting next year's school budget to the public in February in a series of presentations.