Parents Mixed on School Budgets

Reactions from local parents on the region's school budgets are mixed, and usually come down to what district they live in. Rocky Point School District set to adopt on budget on April 27, and after many revisions, it's expected to .

Miller Place's  was . But after weeks of threats to cut numerous programs and layoff a large number of teachers, the Miller Place Board of Education came to an agreement on April 13 that restored many cuts.

"I thought the process was a good one this year, but I thought the board just dragged things on, and each of the meetings seemed to be the same as the one before," said Miller Place parent Lisa Reitan.

A $2,750 concession was given by the teachers association, but the fact that it came with a one-year extension of the teachers' contract at 1.5 percent or higher meant it was met with some resistance.

"I feel that the MP Teachers Union didn't communicate well with their members because in my communication with some teachers early on in the process they didn't really know what was going on," Reitan said. "I think it was great that the MP teachers helped save jobs with their give back, but I do think the CPI should have been capped. Most teachers' contracts in other districts are capped, and unfortunately MP can't handle huge increases."

Miller Place parent and PTO member Laurel Sutton was mostly pleased with the adopted budget.

"I think this is a budget that everybody can support and get out and vote," Sutton said. "It's very important that we keep whatever we can intact and I definitely thank everybody who was able to work together to come up with these kind of solutions. I think it was a very positive step forward."

While many programs were saved in the adopted MP budget, enough cuts were still made to impact the student's. With the dissolution of middle school cheerleading and combination of middle school football teams, MP parent Michael Glenn was disappointed.

"I'm not going to go into the explanation as to why I think 65 kids on a football team is unmanageable but I think that's pretty obvious," Glenn said at the budget adoption meeting. "In terms of cheerleading, it just seems so silly to me to cut that after you laid out the money to buy the uniformas and established a squad for one year and now you're taking it away from those girls."

Lisa Reitan was also upset with the cuts made at the middle school level.

"I am disappointed that there are so many cuts to the music program, and other important activities, especiallly at the ," she said. "People talked about how important it was to have more opportunities at the high school for college, but I think they failed to understand the importance of these things at the middle school level."

In Rocky Point, a final budget has yet to be adopted, but the process thus far has been a smooth one met with little resistance.

"I for one am extremely proud of Rocky Point Schools right now," RP parent Drew Martin said in a comment on Patch. "[Superintendent] Dr. [Michael] Ring has done a quality job for less and Rocky Point is quickly becoming the model for fiscal conservatism and tangible results on the North Shore."