District Proposes Eight-Period School Day

, the district continues to brainstorm cost-saving measures, including a return to an eight-period day at the middle and high schools.

The topic was discussed and debated by residents, BOE members, , and school principals at Monday night's Board of Education meeting at .

Middle School Principal Anael Alston said that the school day would still run from 8 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. and the proposed change would not affect any operations, including busing or lunch.

The middle school would return to "pure teaming," said Alston, and would provide students with 45 minutes of instruction per period – saving the school $620,000.

Alston discussed several downsides to the schedule change, namely cuts in the music department: Seventh and eighth grade band would meet every other day, not every day as it is now, he said. Additionally, seventh and eighth grade students would have to choose between two out of the three subjects: band, orchestra, or chorus. Sixth graders would be required to choose only one.

The eight-period day would lead to employee cuts, including teacher layoffs, according to Alston.

"Less of math instruction, less ESL.  Now, only students who need additional instruction would receive it," Alston said. "We'd have to lose talented faculty."

High School Principal Dr. Joseph Hinton said that the eight-period schedule is nothing new for the high school and not much different from the day that s currently in place. Hinton said that it would increase the likelihood of a full schedule, even for seniors.

While high school students would be forced to choose between chorus and band, Hinton said it would save the district $1 million.  

Board member Joel Sunshine said that he felt the discussion was lacking opposition.

"We used to have a fine arts coordinator to make the opposing argument. What is the opposing argument? What will we get yelled at about in April, and more importantly, September?"

Said Laria: "We might get yelled at because if we don't tweak things in scale, you might have elementary class sizes in the 30s."

Several residents pointed out that cuts are inevitable, especially when dealing with a budget.

"You have money that you don't have, a budget you have to put in. You can't put forward a balanced educational budget with equivalency everywhere," said Glen Cove resident Glen Howard. "This takes place in the business world, the courts, even the home. We used to do it that way, and it worked."

Laria said that the eight-period schedule was only one item out of a list of 55 ideas for cutting costs.

"We begin this process surrounded by critical times in the state and country. We have to place this in that context, to understand the magnitude of issues. The current 2010-2011 budget stands at $70.3 million," said Laria. "The roll-over budget – meaning we'd advance every service forward – with adjustments in the areas which we know will increase, we know the budget must increase by about $5 million, a 7.5% budget increase and a 9.14% tax levy increase. This budget is dead on arrival, and we wouldn't be so ridiculous to advance such an irresponsible figure to the board."

"Whatever the case, these cuts will be draconian," Laria said. "This means we must stay on message. I've been doing budgets for 32 years, and this is the worst I've ever seen in my career. I've had numerous meetings with administration, and our team went through all phases. Glen Cove has had numerous cuts which resulted from going from fat to bone, we are now penetrating the bone, and into bone marrow. None of us want to dismantle a quality education program."

The increased costs include health care, which go up by $85,000 – or $1 million over a year – and retirement payments. In addition, the board expects major cuts in federal and state aid, along with a property tax cap, said Laria.

"So, we said, let's come up with a budget that sounds reasonable," Laria said. The 2011-2012 budget based on a 3% tax levy increase would account for a $71.7 million budget, a 1.89% budget increase. However, this also translates to $3.6 million cut from the rollover budget. If the tax levy increase was 4%, the board would cut $3 million."

All of this goes to moot should the voters turn out to the polls and vote down, Laira said: The board would have to adopt an austerity contingency budget on a cap set by NYS law, which is 1.96%, he said.

The 2011-2012 contingency budget is set at $71.1 million, a 1.04% increase, and a 1.99% tax levy increase, along with $4.2 million in cuts. 

Laria noted that  intense debate will ensue in the coming months, and that there will be special interests: "What makes us the same is what makes us different.  Everybody has a special interest, this is not a bad thing," he said.