School Administrators Arrogance Ignore Taxpayer Pleas

Numerous taxpayers have reached out to the Greenburgh Central School District (GCSD) Board to implore them to adjust the budget to accommodate the recent financial shortfalls every level of government and the private sector are subjected to. Recently, the Governor issued an Executive order on May 1st specific to election changes.  

School Board/Budget elections have been rescheduled for June 9, 2020 and will be held via mail with return postage included. Each School District will send a postcard notice which details the date of the election, date of the budget hearing, definition of a qualified voter, and an absentee ballot.  Other voting changes for this years elections have also been put in place. 

The GCSD Board published their proposed budget on their website for 2020-21. There are actually two documents, a 2-page summary document and 27-page full/detailed document that show how the $70,274,612 budget for 2020-21 will be spent. The previous year’s budget expenditures was $70,752,506. In total, the decrease between the two budgets is a measly $477,894 or a negative .675%, not even a half a million dollars! So we'll be generous and say it's -.68%!

With only a minus .68% decrease, it’s logical that it would be easy to cut more. But this administration maintains a privileged mentality and apparently wants no part of helping the taxpayer. While the GCSD apparently doesn’t feel the pain the residents do, other municipalities have already adjusted for shortfalls that may impact them with local, state and federal reductions. In fact, most governmental administrations are dipping into reserve funds as well as tightening the “budget belts.”

Another point of contention with this budget is that they are asking teachers to freeze their salaries while Dr Chase and Mary O’Neil get their $2,300 and $2,800 raises respectively. They should be embarrassed to accept this. Recently, Mr Feiner threw out an uncorroborated figure out there, as he often does without validation, that 23% of Greenburgh residents have lost their jobs due to the Covid19 pandemic. Let the administrators take pay cuts before the teachers. 

Finally, the School Board has been holding pseudo-live Zoom meetings. In actuality, what they are doing is holding a Zoom meeting amongst themselves and then someone with a video camera and live feed is filming and broadcasting the meeting. Not only is this ridiculous and cumbersome, it assures the Board a modicum amount of insulation from the public by keeping them at bay. What they should be doing is allowing people to sign up to the Zoom meeting that they are in and let the Host mute them. If they have any questions, they can submit them utilizing the chat feature in Zoom.

The GCSD held a Consolidation Bond vote over a year ago when money was not as tight as it’s going to be now. They threw away a lot of money on slick brochures and mailings (and probably more) to try to pull off the bond. That bond was defeated by a two-to-one margin which spoke volumes. This Board hears, yet they didn’t listen. They claimed the budget was shot down because they did a poor job presenting it. That is true. They did a bad job and they lied in an attempt to convince the public that it was something it wasn’t. 

The public knows more than they let on and still doesn’t trust the administration or the Board for that matter. A negative .68% reduction is about what an austerity budget might be which would mean no sports or busing. We are way beyond needing an austerity budget. They’re still not listening. It’s time for some new thinking on the Board and the administration. It’s the only way to get A Better Greenburgh School District.

Note: This article was written prior to the May 11th Board meeting and may be updated.