Shelter Island School’s revised budget cuts spending

There were tears at the Board of Education special meeting May 28 at which a revised budget now at $13.298 million was rolled out.

Board member Kate Rossi-Snook showed emotion 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 by the 60% margin needed on May 20 to go above the State-mandated tax cap of 2%.

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. Other cuts would eliminate the Pre-K3 program, force redesign of a security project that had been planned for the next school year, as well as a reduction in some educational field trips.

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

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 agreed 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 request.

A second rejection would cause adoption of a contingency budget in which:

• No equipment could be purchased 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.

The result would be that future levies would be misaligned with future expenses, Mr. Doelger said.

• Programs would have to 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.

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 to 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 scraping 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 Rondo said he 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 of 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 Monday, June 2, at 5 p.m. to entertain questions or hear views of residents about the revised budget. The revised budget request is set to be adopted at a 6 p.m. meeting on Monday June 9.