The president of the Wainscott School Board on Saturday appealed to the members and guests of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee for support of its 2024-25 budget plan.
In an unprecedented budget vote last year, Wainscott residents collectively cast so many “no” ballots that the district’s tax-cap-busting budget failed twice, first by a margin of three votes and then by a margin of four, plunging the small school district into the uncertainty that comes with an austerity budget. The district had run up a deficit of around $1 million, attributed to a sharp and unusual influx in the number of students in fourth grade and up, for whom tuition was to be paid to neighboring schools.
“Last year when we ran into these issues, it was clear that people were upset, shocked, concerned, and, frankly, embarrassed,” said David Eagan, the board president, who is in his 20th year as a school board member. “Those were the emotions that we all felt for sure. If you ask how can you help, how can you show your support — honestly, the best way to support the school is to vote. Support the budget, support the district.”
Tuition enrollment had been up to an all-time high of 97 students in the previous year, causing the deficit. For the current year, the enrollment stabilized to a more typical enrollment of 62 students.
“It was a perfect storm of many things,” Mr. Eagan said. “Those 30 extra students — a lot of those were displaced from farther east. A lot of homes in Springs were converted from rentals and those families were forced out, and I think they settled here, and I think now they settled more west.”
Yesterday evening, the school board was set to formally adopt a $4.87 million budget, which carries a .6-percent year-over-year spending increase. The associated tax-levy increase would be 2.58 percent, which falls within New York State’s cap on such increases. The district will need only a simple majority of voter support on May 21 for the budget to pass.
“I think we’re back into a more normal operating posture,” Mr. Eagan told the citizens advisory committee. “One year is not a trend, but last year’s events were short-lived and maybe one-off. We’ll see. We’re in a much better position now than we were last year.”
The district will make this tax-cap-compliant spending plan a reality by once again keeping the fourth grade in-house, as opposed to sending the students off to other schools. If the district did not do so, it would have had to pierce the cap again, Mr. Eagan said.
“Keeping the students back this year is a good move. Going forward, it would be our desire not to do that,” he said. “Next year, we’ll play it by ear.”
The 2024-25 school budget returns the salaries of part-time “specials” teachers for art, music, computer classes, and gym, which were provided this year only through private donations from people in the community. The 2024-25 budget also approves the creation of an in-house prekindergarten program, which adds about $60,000 to transform a teacher assistant position into a full teaching role. This actually saves the district money, Mr. Eagan later said by email, because Wainscott wouldn’t have to pay tuition to send its prekindergarten students to other facilities for that program.
Within the scope of the current year’s budget, in which Wainscott voters agreed to the levy of a one-time sum of $1 million to erase the deficit, the school district declined an offer of help from the New York State Legislature. Mr. Eagan described it to the advisory committee as a “bailout” that would have come with “terms” that the district found undesirable.
“We would have become a ward of the state,” he said. “You have to turn your budgets over to the comptroller’s office — a procedural thing we didn’t want to be involved in. We were heading that way, but we’re lucky we didn’t have to follow through on it.”
But by phone on Monday, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. disagreed that it would have been a bailout. Rather, he said, he presented potential legislation that would have allowed Wainscott to finance its way out of debt over a 10-year period, meaning less of an impact in a single year to the taxpayers.
“It was the same legislation that the Town of East Hampton had 15 years ago when they had a $30 million deficit. We did deficit-financing legislation,” Mr. Thiele said. “We could have done the same thing with Wainscott. They could have financed their debt over 10 years.”
Asked what terms that would have carried, Mr. Thiele said, “During that period they would have had to send their budget each year to the comptroller’s office for review and comment. They wouldn’t have lost any home-rule authority. . . . There wouldn’t have been any loss of control, no requirement of consolidating districts, but they went in another direction.”
A full copy of Wainscott’s proposed budget can be found on the district website, wainscottschool.org.
This year’s budget vote is Tuesday, May 21, with voting at the Wainscott School from 2 to 8 p.m. Voters may cast ballots if they are already registered with the Suffolk County Board of Elections with their Wainscott addresses as primary residence. Otherwise, there’s still time for voters to register; they must be at least 18 years old, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the school district for at least 30 days before the vote.
Voters can also cast early ballots by mail, by absentee ballot, or by affidavit if prior registration has not already taken place. The district can be phoned at 631-537-1080 for more information.