Re-worked Shelter Island School budget cuts spending: Pre-K program on the chopping block 

The Board of Education voted Monday night to adopt its revised $13.298 million budget proposal after listening to a room full of parents mourning the loss of the district’s Pre-K3 program that had to be cut to keep spending within the state tax cap.

No one came to blame the school administration or Board of Education. But for those who have had children enrolled in the Pre-K3 program, they were saddened to see it scrapped after the original budget that pierced the cap failed to garner the 60% approval rate needed for passage.

Lorraine Silvani started the discussion about the Pre-K3 program saying she would lead a fundraising effort to pay to restore it to the budget. Her child has thrived in the program and cutting it isn’t apt to assure voters will be won over, she said.

The State Education Department gave the district three choices:

• Put up the same budget that failed for a re-vote and hope it garners 60% of the ballots cast on June 17

• Put up a revised budget that doesn’t pierce the tax cap

• Immediately opt to go on a contingency budget in which the State decides what gets cut

Under that scenario, the budget could not:

• Purchase any equipment for any reason.

• The tax levy for the 2025-26 school year would be the same as the current tax levy.

• Community groups would have no use of school facilities.

• Programs would have to be cut, negatively impacting students.

• Wall Street ratings agencies could seek to downgrade the district’s economic outlook and that would negatively impact borrowing rates and other debt costs.

The result would be that future levies would be misaligned with future expenses, Superintendent Brian Doelger, Ed.D., said.

The State blocks the district from being able to use contributions from the community to pay for the Pre-K3 program because too often, such contributions are linked to requests from major donors that can’t be met.

“It’s devastating to us, too,” Mr. Doelger said about having to cancel the program. He noted that Board President Kathleen Lynch had lobbied for the program from the time it started.

“If there’s someone to blame here, it’s the New York tax cap,” Ms. Lynch said.

There’s some hope the private preschool program that operates out of the Presbyterian Church might be able to expand its half day program to offer two sessions — one in the morning and one in the afternoon, she said.

Victoria Shields said although her children are beyond the Pre-K level, she regrets seeing the program canceled. She said there have been questions among community members about why cuts to the administration couldn’t be made.

Ms. Lynch said by law the district must have a superintendent and a principal and added to those responsibilities, Mr. Doelger took on the roll of business manager to hold the district to three administrators. By functioning as business manager, Mr. Doelger is saving the district $120,000 and that number might be more now than it was when the superintendent said he would add that responsibility to his work. She noted that Bridgehampton, another small district, has five administrators and a lot of administration work is mandated by the State.

A week earlier, just a week after the budget had failed on May 20, the Board of Education unrolled its revised budget proposal with tears at a special meeting on May 28.

Board member Kate Rossi-Snook showed emotion last week as she said she is “terribly disappointed” at the $556,443 that has to be lopped off the original $13.85 million budget request, which failed to pass muster with the voters.

Resuming her comments a bit later, Ms. Rossi-Snook said she was disappointed that no one showed up at the May 28 meeting to discuss the revisions. What hurts her the most, she added, about the loss of the first budget vote is “some talented and loving staff members are being told their time is being cut.”

Others were holding back tears and expressing their disappointment that some jobs had to be cut back, including the school social worker, special education teaching positions and a computer technician and the Pre-K3 program.

The planned security upgrade must undergo a redesign but will eventually happen on a slower schedule, Mr. Doelger said. There will also be a reduction in some educational field trips, he said.

The disappointment was not about the hard work that went into the creation of the original budget that had been rejected, but the effect the reductions that are now required will have on students and staff.

Because the original budget failed, the New York State Education Department requires the district to choose an option of immediately going to a more restrictive “contingency budget;” submitting the original budget for a re-vote or submitting a revision that stays within the State-imposed 2% tax cap.

No other proposition can appear on the re-vote ballot.

Board President Kathleen Lynch said while the temptation was to put up the same budget, it would have been too risky. She said she’d heard from many residents that the same budget should be put up and would pass, but she agreed that cutting back to a spending plan that wouldn’t pierce the tax cap, much as it hurt, was better than being put on a contingency budget in which the State would determine what could or could not be spent.

Superintendent Brian Doelger, Ed.D., said the loss at the polls was “not what we had hoped for” and “a lot of work had to be done in a short amount of time” to arrive at the revised proposed budget.

While the revised budget is painful, Mr. Doelger said, it was designed to affect the least number of students as possible, choosing to sacrifice lightly subscribed electives over school-wide programs. It reduces portions of programs rather than eliminating entire programs, he said. The administration and Board of Education also chose to eliminate some field trips rather than scrapping them all and reducing expenses related to some staff members rather than students.

The entire revised budget appears on the school district’s website and Mr. Doelger and Board of Education members said they are willing to speak with anyone with questions between now and the June 17 re-vote.

Board member Anthony Rando said the reason for the loss after 10 years of budgets passing on their initial vote is the overall tax burden. Taxpayers endured, but had no say about the Town Budget or the reassessment, which took effect this year. They know increases will come to pay for bonding of the library building expansion, but that vote came in June 2023, long before they knew the economy would be as difficult to navigate for residents as it is today.

The Board of Education meets next Monday for a public hearing on the revised budget, June 9, at 6 p.m. to entertain questions or hear views of residents about the revised budget. But the numbers can’t be changed now that the budget proposal has been adopted.

Voting occurs at the school on June 17 between noon and 9 p.m. Anyone who needs an absentee ballot should call Board Clerk Jacki Dunning at 631-749-0302 ext. 101. Those completed ballots must be turned in at the school by 5 p.m. on June 17 in order to be counted.