WNYMoms.com

How involved are you in the school budget vote? Do you read the district budget online? Do you attend budget meetings? Do you vote?

I don't usually read the budget or attend the meetings. Our school superintendent is in contact with the village board on a regular basis so I usually get my info there. He generally addresses us before the vote to answer any questions we have. We have a good rapport between the two entities. I always vote.

Ahh the time of year that gets my heart pumping. I can't wait to hear what Hamburg Schools has to say to me as a tax payer when they missed the deadline for APPR and lost $450,000 in state aide (And for those that question what I know, I am a NYS Teacher, I get what had to take place). On a personal level, I just cross my fingers that I will make it thru to next year (say some prayers). I will say that, from what I am hearing, some districts are being forced to make some really tough decisions (closing buildings, etc...), which may make some economical sense. I just hope that the decisions made will not affect our children.

I go to the meetings, but find them upsetting. We are facing a potential 10% tax increase. I have asked friends and neighbors to go to the meetings and they won't. They feel it is a farce and that taxpayers are too intimiated to speak or ask questions because the room is filled with teachers and administrators who are not taxpayers in this district. At the last meeting a parent, who is a school administrator in another district, got up and told the board that our town's residents don't want cuts and are all willing to pay a 10% tax increase. The room erupted in loud applause in support of him, but most of the people applauding were school employees who don't live here, can't vote here, and don't pay taxes here. I have a lot of neighbors who are planning to vote against the tax increase. The Bee poll shows that more taxpayers are against the tax increase than are for it. I think the Board is getting a very distorted view of the community's viewpoiont.

I go to the PTA meetings where the superintendent comes and talks about the budget. I read about it on the website and have gone to some of the meetings.
I find the whole process frustrating because the only way to afford the budget is to raise taxes which we pay more than enough for. Otherwise they have to cut teachers and programs which is not fair. The real problem is the cost of teachers' pensions and health care, not really the current cost of the programs. The problem with that is there's no way to resolve that issue. Even if they were to revamp the pension system, we still have to cover all the teachers that are retired and are in the system at the old level. Same with the health insurance.
I love our school district and I don't want them to cut any programs so what do you do?

Well... I would agree that a district's budget is heavily on salaries, pensions, and health care. However, in the district I teach in, I pay 20% for health insurance (an average of more than $120 a paycheck). I don't mind paying, but I know that some of my colleagues in other districts are not paying anything near what I do if they pay at all. As for tiered retirement, well as of last year, there is a tier 6 for those newer teachers, which is better for us tax payers I guess. I know of at least 3 districts, including the one I teach in as well as the one my son is in, who took pay freezes last year and that won't be the case this year. Here is my dilemma with all of this... the cost of inflation does not coincide with Cuomo's tax cap. Some districts are making the difficult choices this year to close buildings, give early incentive packages, which include teachers who have only taught a mere few years, in an effort to close millions of dollars in a budget gap.

Many parents are only looking at their point of view as parents of children currently in school. They look at the value they are getting for THEIR tax payments for their children in the current year. What about all the people who aren't parents? What about all the people whose children are grown? They are paying the SAME taxes as you and me. Every year. For life.

The average American worker contribures 28-35% towards his medical insurance. In my district teachers contribute 8-10%. (And the 10% is brand new this year.)

Many parents are only looking at their point of view as parents of children currently in school. They look at the value they are getting for THEIR tax payments for their children in the current year. What about all the people who aren't parents? What about all the people whose children are grown? They are paying the SAME taxes as you and me. Every year. For life.

AMEN to that!

All that can be said is to get educated on what your district is doing. Try not to follow the lead of one way or the other without being informed by the actual facts. We can all be persuaded to be one way or the other. Try to remember that forums like this can be meant, for some, a place of opinions, such as this thread. Only you can form your own opinion. In this case, most of us are not in one district, we are wide-spread so to say "no" to one district budget does not mean that everyone else should say "no" to their own. Personally, I do not plan to vote one way or the other without going to some meetings and asking questions at those meetings. And for the record... I paid taxes for 9 years in my first house and my son never saw a day in those schools (he wasn't alive for 7 of those years). In fact, I paid high taxes to make up for the people who think that "work" is a four letter word. I also paid taxes for the first 2 years of my 2nd home before he started K, so I do know what it means to pay taxes for something you are not benefitting from. Not to get off topic, but the fights we should be reforming is welfare and the cost of inflation. But that is for another topic!

I agree that people need to be informed. I hear teachers and parents complaining that it is terrible that teachers' jobs are bing cut, but let's take a closer look at what those jobs are. They are cutting 6 elementary teachers in my district. That sounds like a lot, but when you look at the numbers there are 100 fewer kids coming into kindergarten next year. That is 4 jobs right there. We don't need to pay teachers in empty classrooms. So really they are only cutting 2 jobs as part of the consolidation. Let's look at the jobs being cut in the high school. They will discontinue electives such as "The 1960's" "Women's History" and "Holocaust." These are great topics, but do we really need to ask every tax payer in the town to pay for these electives at the high school level? No. If you want to take a class about the 1960's, take it in college and pay for it yourself!

If you want to take a class about the 1960's, take it in college and pay for it yourself!

Or just give me a call. I LIVED it!!