Parents for Change Memo on Jan 2013 Community Forum

Sent: Friday, February 01, 2013 10:08 AM

Subject: Update on Advocacy meeting from 1/30

Hello All,

Sorry this so late getting out to you, the meeting wrapped up after 10p.m and I have had a busy work week. I wanted to follow up with all of you about the meeting last night with Assemblywoman Annie Rabbit and Assemblyman James Skoufis. I believe the meeting was a success, despite only a 40 person turnout. (Many thanks for the parents and teachers that came.) The meeting was more of a round table discussion and once again the dialogue was very open. The meeting began with the parents and teachers introducing themselves and describing what concerned them most about the crisis in NY state.

Many parents vocalized a need for drastic change. Some called for a revolution. It was hard to hear the Assemblyman say that within 2-3 years, up to 30 districts across the state could fail. They both praised Warwick for starting the discussions about our budget crisis early. They both talked about how important it is that we lobby for a change in the whole system, not just for a day but for the next year. They spoke to us about being organized and stressed that it will be a long road, because the wheels of the “system” simply are not working.

There were a lot of discussions about how to save the district money. One idea Dr. Bryant proposed was consolidating administrative services between Warwick Schools, Warwick Village Hall and Warwick Town Hall. This would be a tremendous savings for our schools and local government. Annie Rabbit agreed to sponsor the bill.

The discussion of consolidating schools once again came up (Chester, Florida, Greenwood Lake and Warwick). The board members requested that the Annie Rabbit and James Skoufis try and get the school officials to meet and sit down together. The Board vocalized their frustrations on the other schools outright refusal to join them in the discussion. They explained that although students would likely stay in their own schools and retain their own identities emotions get in the way. Consolidating would save money and keep programs. The Assemblywoman said that at this point districts think they can still survive. She felt that they will talk about consolidation only after they’ve lost so much and their schools were literally bare bones.

Skoufis and Rabbit were surprised to hear that it is proposed that we are only going to get around $1.1 million for next year’s budget which is woefully low. They said that if the board supplied them with more details that they would fight to get us more money.

Skoufis spoke about the tax cap sun-seting next June. This is another huge area for us to explore- we could lobby to increase the cap or add more exemptions. He also spoke of raising the sales tax so that a portion if it helped funded the schools across the state. He felt with all the tourists coming to NYC and Woodbury Common, it could help our schools rather than relying solely on property tax and further burdening home owners.

We also spoke with Annie Rabbit about gaining her support to gain revenue for our schools through advertising. The goal is to have advertising on buses, lunchroom menus, lockers and website. Annie Rabbit said she would be the sponsor in the Assembly for this bill as well.

Looking ahead:

BOE Community forum 2/4/13 at 7p.m at the High School

Joint PTA Advocacy meeting 2/5/13 at 7p.m at King’s Elementary

 

Thank you and see you Monday,

Vanessa Holland

Parents for Change- Warwick NY