MEET THE BAUMANN SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS
SCHOOLS
041803 Revolt appeals to school district
BY FRANK NARDOZZI
The Bedford Central School District has heard the call but, so far, has declined to get into the fray between the Fair-port Central School District, near Rochester, and the state education department.
The revolt against late state budgets, cuts in state aid and unfunded state mandates was discussed by Bedford Central school board members at their meeting at Fox Lane Middle School on Wednesday, April 9.
While declining to follow the Fairport school district's lead in refusing to put its budget up for a school district vote, as required, until a state budget is passed this year, the Bedford Central Board of Education was of a mind to send along a letter of support, instead.
"This is a rather significant statement that they're looking to make," said the school board's president, Dot Fallon, noting that the state legislature had not passed a budget on time in 19 years.
This failure causes a great deal of consternation among school districts across the state, because the districts don't know how much state aid they can expect in order to balance their budgets.
"Do we want to do the same thing?" Ms. Fallon asked board members, referring to the budget withholding, in spite of the state education department's threat to remove the Fairport school board and its superintendent from office if they do not comply with state law.
"Some days," came the reply from school board member Mel Comberiati to a chorus of laughter from the board.
"I would not be willing to do the same thing because it is essentially breaking the law, and I don't think that it sets a good example for the children of this district - that if you don't like a law you just break it," said school board trustee Paula Kumar.
"But I would like to support the notion of their civil disobedience and state why we think it is important that the legislation change so that we don't have to practice civil disobedience in order to be adequately funded for the mandates that we receive."
The Bedford Central School District is expecting a $600,000 cut in state aid 2003-04, according to the governor's proposed budget, which has not yet been acted upon by the state legislature. The deadline for enacting a new state budget was April 1.
"I really think that these people need to be applauded for taking such a strong stand," said Ms. Kumar, referring to the Fairport school district.
in its letter to all school board presidents in the state dated March 20, Maureen Nupp, president of the Fairport Board of Education, stated: "As we all know, the state has not passed its budget on time for 18 straight years. In the past, school boards have been able to tolerate the legislative failure to meet the April lst deadline by estimating what would be added to the governor's state aid proposal. This is no longer true.
"Districts that took that gamble in the past two budget sessions paid a dear price. The governor's proposal for schools in 2003-04 reduces aid to education by $1.2 billion. On top of that bad news, we were informed recently that our current aid payments will be delayed and that the state's fiscal health is worse than predicted.
"In this current fiscal crisis, we can no longer adequately prepare our budgets without knowing revenues. Even if a portion of the $1.2 billion is restored, it will be after much damage has been done."
In an accompanying resolution, the school board explains that the failure of the state to adopt a budget on time creates "a significant financial hardship" by forcing short-term borrowing.
Six years ago, school districts had the flexibility of putting their budgets up to a vote any time prior to June 30," Ms. Nupp's letter states. "This flexibility is how many of us managed the late state budgets.
"Now, all districts must vote on one day in May (the third Tuesday). This voting date requirement must change immediately. To responsibly plan for the education of our children, we must have either the flexibility of a voting date or an on-time state budget."
Ms. Nupp further states: "We all fully understand the fiscal crisis New York State and the country face. It is clear that in difficult times education is not a high priority for our lawmakers, and we are not naive enough to expect large increases in state support.
"However, we are asking and demanding that we stop spending on legislation that has not been funded. School districts across the state have the ability to save millions of dollars if unfunded mandates were suspended. "Each year, we are given a new package of bad news from the state and somehow, as school boards, we clean up the mess locally. The time has come to Just Say NO!' We cannot afford to fund new requirements as well as the escalating increases in ERS, TRS (retirement systems) and health insurance that we all face. We cannot pass on near double-digit tax increases while the state continues tax-cut programs.
"Thus, the Fairport Board of Education has unanimously approved three resolutions. The first resolution supports not putting our budget up for public vote until the legislature has adopted a revenue appropriation for schools; the second resolution asks state legislators to roll back unfunded legislation and commissioner's regulations to 1995; and the third resolution directs the superintendent of schools to administer the 4th, 5th and 8th grade assessments, but submit them to the state education department uncorrected."
According to its resolution, some of the unfunded state mandates include Safe Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE), the School Facility Report Card, automated external defibrillators, the attendance plan and report, the K-12 Assessment Proram, academic intervention services,' the System for Tracking Educational Performance (STEP), and the Uniform Violent Incident Reporting System.
The Fairport school board's resolution states that the governor's proposed budget currently calls for a reduction in state aid to Fairport of $2.1 million in 2003-04.
The resolution states that the cut in state aid would put the district into a fiscal crisis and notes the "enormous financial burden" that having to correct thousands of fourth-, fifth- and eighth-grade assessments would place "on an already under-funded budget."
The resolution states that these assessments "provide no additional information to school officials to provide learning or remedial assistance to Fair-port students that has not already been gathered by local diagnosis and assessments.
"The-cost to provide substitute teachers to correct said exams would be prohibitive in this time of financial crisis," the board's resolution states, "and valuable construction time would be lost."
Therefore, the Fairport Board of Education ordered its superintendent of schools to administer all state assessments and forward them ungraded to the state education department to be corrected. The board also asked for a meeting with the state commissioner of education to discuss this issue.
Education department responds
in a letter of response to Ms. Nupp, a copy of which was sent to all school boards in the state, Kathy Ahearn, state education department counsel and deputy commissioner for legal affairs, reminded the Fairport school board president that the state education law requires that an annual meeting and election be held on the third Tuesday in May.
The law also requires that the board of education "shall hold a budget hearing not less than seven, nor more than 14 days prior to the annual or special district meeting at which a school budget vote will occur, and shall prepare and present to the voters at such budget hearing a propose school district budget for the ensuing school year."
"The preparation and presentation of a budget to the voters is a statutory requirement," states Ms. Ahearn. "The board's duty to comply with this law is not altered by the timing of the enactment of a state budget.
"Similarly, the board is required by law to ensure that the district participates in the state assessment program at the fourth-, fifth- and eighth-grade levels. Meaningful participation under regulation and the No Child Left Behind Act requires the submission to the state education department of corrected exams.
"Please be advised that any willful neglect of duty, or violation of statute, regulation or commissioner's order is grounds for removal of the members of the board of education and the superintendent of schools under the education law," Ms. Ahearn warns.
Newspaper editorials and op-ed articles have praised Fairport school officials for telling Albany that they are tired of late state budgets that foul up local spending plans and state regulations that force school districts to pay for programs dreamed up by the state.
Fairport school officials have also noted an outpouring of support from their local constituents.
So far, State Commissioner of Education Richard P Mills has remained silent about the controversy. However, the distribution of the department's warning letter has dampened the enthusiasm of other school boards around the state for following suit.
However, words of support have come from superintendents, among them Michael McGill of Scarsdale, who reportedly commented that it was more than a little hypocritical for the education department to say that Fairport had to obey the law, while the state gets to disregard it.
Tom Golisano, the upstate billionaire business tycoon who ran as a third-party candidate and lost in the last state election for governor, has stated that he will pay the legal bills for the Fairport schools superintendent and his school board if the state follows through on its threat to remove them and they wish to challenge the dismissals.
"A lot of this has to do with local control being eroded for school districts," said Ms. Fallon at the school board meeting last week. She offered to work with Ms. Kumar to draft a letter of support for the Fairport school board from Bedford Central.