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Schools

Miller Place Residents Decry Cuts in Budget Workshop

Second budget workshop allows residents to speak to the board with their thoughts, questions and suggestions.

The Board of Education heard dozens of students, parents and teachers voice their feelings on the proposed budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year on Wednesday, ranging from support of administrative reductions to protest against program cuts.

This was the second budget workshop since the proposed budget was unveiled at the .

Before the floor was open, Board President James Moran made it clear that the board would be further evaluating the administrative staff reductions, which currently stands at two and represents $309,146 of the $4.9 million in reductions. The statement resonated with the crowd, sparking the first round of applause of the night.

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What stuck out to the crowd who packed the Miller Place High School cafeteria was not only the possible 37 teacher layoffs, but also the cutting of clubs, including 15 out of 19 clubs at the high school level as well as the removal of Advanced Placement, Level Five and Sixth Grade foreign language classes.

Silvana Sguera, a 2008 graduate of the high school who currently studies linguistics at Stony Brook University, took the floor and gave the board a folder filled with e-mails from students reacting to the proposed cuts.

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"If I wasn’t able to take a second language in 11th and 12th grade I wouldn’t have realized it was linguisitics I wanted to go to school for," Sguera said. "I’m enjoying my studies so much that I can’t imagine where I’d be right now if I didn’t have those classes. 37 teachers could lose their jobs and [they] are the ones we come in contact with and make impressions on students and it’s really sad."

The clubs on the cutting board at the high school level would include the drama, newspaper, robotics and varsity clubs, among others. A concern of the crowd was the chances the students would have at getting into the colleges of their choice with limited extra curricular activities to choose from.

"I think we need to look at all the areas," said Laurel Sutton, a member of the Miller Place PTO. "These kids really need to be able to compete in this world. These high school kids are really going to be hurting if they can’t have the things that help them get into college. It’s hard enough as it is...I’m afraid for these children."

Of the $4.9 million total in reductions, the clubs at the high school level account for just $55,000. With a , the board is weighing its options.

"That’s why we have four budget workshops," District Superintendent Susan Hodun said. "It’s part of the process to keep looking at everything. That budget that went out was proposed, it’s a starting point. The board has a lot of hard decisions to make at this point. We’re going to keep working it."

All of the details of the proposed budget can be found on the district website, and a third budget workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m.

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