Officials ‘highly disappointed’ at 2.2 percent cut

Proposed spending total now $45.64M

EAST HAMPTON — The Board of Finance completed action on the proposed 2018-19 budget this week with a dramatic cut to the Board of Education budget.

Superintendent of Schools Paul K. Smith, who put forth a $31.17 million spending package, had sought a 3.73 percent increase in spending on education in the coming fiscal year. However, the Republican majority on the finance board reduced that to a 1.5 percent increase, a loss of some $670,000.

When finance board Vice Chairman Richard Brown first made the proposal, it prompted audible gasps from some education supporters in the middle school library Thursday, where the meeting was held.

Finance board member Ted Turner had a succinct reaction: “Crazy! I don’t know where to start. I’m completely opposed to that. I don’t want to go backward. I can’t believe you want to go that low.”

It was even too much for Finance Board Chairman Michael Rose, who proposed a 2 percent increase. But Rose’s four fellow Republicans would not be dissuaded, so he wound up joining Democrats Turner and Barbara Moore in voting no — for a 4-3 outcome.

“I’m highly disappointed,” school board Chairman Christopher Goff said following the vote. He then said he was “self-censoring” himself and would not say anything further.

After meeting with Goff and schools business manager Karen Asetta, Smith said he, too, was “disappointed — especially given the support we’ve had from the voters in the past two years.”

The board’s majority said they were forced to take the action because of continuing uncertainty involving the state’s beleaguered economy and likelihood of additional reductions in state aid this year and next.

“These are difficult times,” board member Alannah Coshow said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Rose acknowledged as much. “We knew this was going to be a difficult year. It’s pretty clear where the reductions are going to come: in [Education Cost Sharing funds] and in [funding teacher] pensions.”

However, he said, “I caucused with my colleagues,” hoping to win their support for a 2 percent increase. The school department “is facing some pretty difficult challenges. Two percent would give them a little more breathing room.”

But Rose’s view did not prevail. The approved budget for the coming year now totals $45.64 million — down from a proposed $46.3 million.

For weeks, the board’s Republicans had been signaling their dissatisfaction with the size of Smith’s proposed increase. After a presentation last week, which showed some teachers at the very top making salaries equal or greater than those in wealthy districts in the state, the majority wanted to reopen the existing teachers’ contract.

They eventually stepped back from that stance.

Instead, finance board members met with Board of Education members Tuesday to find areas of agreement as they discussed ways of paring back the proposed increase.

An hour-long public session produced suggestions, including charging the 100 or so students who drive to school to pay to park there, looking for ways to trim the benefits for cafeteria workers, and incorporating solar technology to provide energy to the four schools in town.

The two boards then held a private session during which they discussed salaries. Moore refused to take part in the closed-door session, labeling it a “nonmeeting.”