Hampton Bays Seniors Support School Budgets

Though the  would raise the tax levy 5.2 percent, local seniors say the education is worth it, even if means paying more to support a system they do not have children in.

Westhampton-Hampton Bays Patch recently had lunch with several seniors to get more on their reactions to the school budgets.

Not knowing much about the budget specifics in Hampton Bays, Walter Falhery of Hampton Bays said in this economy it’s hard for many seniors to afford higher taxes, but he said more importantly, “Kids need an education.”

Ann Paulovski of Hampton Bays, agreed wholeheartedly and said she believes that the Hampton Bays School District, as well as neighboring districts are trying to “be as lenient as possible with the taxes and what trying to get from community.”

“They are trying to hold back as much as they can and still give the students what they need. To make any drastic cuts laying of teachers and cutting back on different programs would be devastating both to the kids and the community because we want our kids in Hampton Bays to come out on top.”

TJ Hooker of Flanders also agreed and recalled a story about an old neighbor of his who always voted yes to every school budget until his kids graduated. 

“He then voted no,” said Hooker. “I got high blood pressure just thinking about that. He took care of himself, but not everybody else.”

Former school teacher Gene Fellingham of Hampton Bays said she agrees that students need a good education, but said that there has to be a way to lower taxes. She suggested that area school districts look to consolidate services.

“I feel we are top-heavy in administration,” she said.  “There are superintendents all over the place. That is a lot of money and a lot of money for health care.”

Fellingham’s thoughts were recently addressed by superintendent Lars Clemensen at Monday night’s meeting. Clemensen said he did look into consolidating some school services, but says he was turned down twice.

The issue, however, may not be dead. Assemblyman Fred Thiele released a statement on Wednesday outlining a piece of legislation that he has introduced that would allow school district’s to enter into agreements and contracts with neighboring school districts for central administrative services.

The legislation, Thiele said would also cap “the percentage of expenditures each school district can expend for central administrative services” at 2 percent of the district’s total budget.

Of his legislation, Theile said that while in many cases,the full consolidation of school districts may not be practical or desirable, this does not mean that steps cannot be taken by school districts to work together to consolidate administrative functions.