School budget debate: where and how to cut

I am writing in response to the article “Warwick school board seeks public input for help in making budget choices.”

I first want to comment on how picky and hypercritical community members are being regarding the budget. A few months ago when the discussion of closing the Pine Island Elementary was brought up to the board to cut district costs, there was a complete uproar over how that was not in the best interests of the students or the parents.

So now when the budget is brought up again, community members are asked what areas they think could be cut or increased and they complain about how the approach the board is taking makes them feel like they were being “treated as a game.”

The community criticizes the board when they are asked to voice their opinion and also attack the board when their voice isn’t heard.

It is quite a job that the Warwick district has to undertake; trim $3.6 million from the budget with possible cuts in teachers, all-day kindergarten, music programs, athletics and supplies.

What boggles my mind is when there is an opportunity to get additional state aid without making additional cuts, but the State Education Department and teacher unions won’t budge on the demand for new teacher evaluations and risk giving up a 4 percent increase in state aid and the ability to compete for $250 million in state funds.

New York school districts are receiving pressure from Albany. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law demanding that the districts develop a new teacher evaluation by Jan. 17, 2013, or risk the latter threat stated above. Federal aid of $700 million for New York State schools could also be lost if the teachers union fail to cooperate.

I find it outrageous that teachers fear being evaluated so much that they would put the district’s aid in jeopardy. This “no evaluation, no money” ultimatum is the exact fire that school districts need to keep a closer eye on their teaching staff.

Teachers should be safe from cuts if they can prove their value in the classroom. I recently graduated from the Warwick Valley School District and have seen valuable teachers and monitors let go because of budget cuts.

I also see the school lunch monitors who truly care for the well-being of the students cut because they didn’t have seniority, but the teachers whose students are roaming the halls because they can learn the material better out of a book who are still employed solely because they stuck around long enough for tenure.

Even at the elementary level there are gym teachers that let the kids run around recklessly instead of organizing physical activities, but art teachers who produce the most inspiring work and still will risk losing his supplies to these cuts.

The district is cutting in the wrong places; cut seniority and tenure policies and make the teachers prove themselves just like the students have to prove themselves every day.

Roxanne Wasiluk Warwick