Amityville school board warns of school closure, tax hikes to slash $4.6M budget deficit

The Amityville school board, having recently addressed one multimillion-dollar budget deficit by laying off 47 teachers and staff, has a brand-new budget gap of $4.6 million, which officials say could mean shuttering an elementary school or significantly raising local taxes.

The board of education announced at its meeting Wednesday night that its spending plan for the next school year is $4.6 million short. One proposal would close Northeast Elementary School, which houses a prekindergarten program, and eliminate its eight teaching positions as well as 30 staff posts that include a principal, teaching assistants, classroom monitors, a nurse, security and custodians. About 100 students attend the school, according to teachers union president Nakia Wolfe.

“We are facing a substantial budget variance of $4.6 million from the current budget to the proposed 2024-25 budget,” schools Superintendent Gina Talbert told the board at the meeting. “We do not want to close Northeast. ... We understand the power of early education.”

This money crunch follows a separate budget deficit of $3.6 million for the school year that ended in June 2023, which prompted the school board last month to announce the layoffs of 47 teachers and staff.

The new deficit drew sharp rebukes from parents and community members, who chastised the board and administration for failing to hold the reins on spending.

"Every time we think it can't get worse, it does," said Caroline Fanning, 42, who has a daughter in ninth grade and a son in seventh grade. "They are traumatizing the community."

Efforts to contact Talbert and school board president Lisa Johnson were unsuccessful Thursday.

District could pierce tax cap

Talbert and district officials said Wednesday that nearly $1.8 million could be saved by closing Northeast Elementary. The district has a projected revenue of $115 million for next year and officials have proposed at least a 3.07% tax increase in the proposed budget.

School officials say the main budget drivers for the 2024-25 school year are the loss of federal COVID-19 aid and the increasing costs of programs, labor and employee benefits.

Another factor that could influence the budget is the amount of state aid the district will get. The State Legislature has yet to approve a budget. 

If Northeast Elementary stays open, Talbert and other district officials noted, the board could face having to pierce the tax cap. The state has set the district's allowable cap increase at 3.08%, but school officials said it could swell to 5.84%. The hike would equate to an average tax levy increase of up to $620 annually for Babylon residents and $581 for those in Oyster Bay, officials said.

Amityville officials also presented various financial scenarios, such as shifting students from Northeast to another elementary school, as well as cuts that would target instructional programs, intramural sports, after-school clubs, transportation, BOCES and advanced placement programs.

'This is very upsetting'

Community members said they were angry the proposals arrived so late in the budget process. The school board must adopt a budget by April 24 before it is presented to voters May 21.

"The bottom line is that they are not great problem-solvers," said Wendy Canestro, a community advocate considering a run for the school board. Regarding the latest proposed cuts, "It's a very bleak look into the future for kids being educated in Amityville," she said.

She said the school board should have gotten the public involved in the decision-making process earlier, such as including them in some sort of committee to study the prospect of closing the school. 

“This is very upsetting. I have two kids who went through Northeast School, everyone says it’s the happy place, and I can’t believe we’re at this point,” school board member Juan Leon said.

Wolfe, the teachers union president, said in an email: "The district needs to find a way to make use of the building while rehousing the entire staff in order to make sure that we don’t lose anymore valuable assets, or impact the community by taking away the earliest of childhood academic services." 

The Amityville school board and administration have faced growing outrage and controversy since the school board announced proposed layoffs in February to address the 2022-23 budget. The job losses — 25 teachers, six pupil personnel staff, six teaching assistants, five monitors, two administrators, two security staff and one custodian — are planned for the end of this school year.

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced in January that the district is in “significant stress” — the highest level of risk in the state's rating system. An independent audit of the district's finances for the 2022-23 school year concluded its internal controls over budgeting were “ineffective.”