Right now, many of us are struggling with very real problems we feel we can’t do much about. Economic disruption. Public health dangers. Personal loss. Educational uncertainty. Cabin fever. Nothing in our lives is as it was three months ago, and we’re all struggling with all of it to different degrees. Wearing a mask feels uncomfortable, standing six feet apart from our closest friends feels unnatural, and we feel awkward crossing paths with our neighbors on sidewalks or the aisles of supermarkets.
And, right now, there finally is a positive, constructive action we can take. One that will help our community move forward.
We can vote.
Any day now, you will be receiving in the mail a ballot for the 2020-2021 School Budget, which is due to be returned to the District Clerk by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9th. The ballots can be mailed back or placed in a dropbox located outside the main entrance of Mamaroneck High School from 7am -5pm on June 9th only.
Inarguably, this is a terrible time to be voting on a budget. There are so many things that we don’t know about next school year, from the amount of aid our district is going to receive from New York State to the basic element of when and whether our kids will be returning to live classrooms in the fall.
The only things we know for certain is that our kids need our schools, that our community needs our schools, and that our schools need our community. We are all in this together.
We also know that bringing the budget under the allowable tax cap levy, which is where the 2020-2021 budget falls, was a priority for our families. The District and Board of Education heard that message and have accomplished that with this budget. This budget continues our district’s ability to invest in the kind of learning environment and experiences that have distinguished our schools for so long.
But we also must recognize that if the budget does not pass, we could be forced to operate on a contingency budget (0% tax levy growth) representing a loss of $2.25 million. Additionally, if our state aid is cut, those revenues will also need to be recovered. If this Budget does not pass, where would that lost tax levy and state aid revenue come from?
Cuts. In a contingency budget scenario, we would lose some flexibility in non-mandated cuts we would be forced to make and we would have to make s taffing cuts. That could mean the elimination of teacher and other staff positions.
We recognize the hardship that many in our community are facing, and we have attempted to provide you with the facts so that you can make an informed decision. To get even a greater sense of everything involved in planning for next school year, please check out the Roundtable Conversation recorded on Tuesday.
If you have any questions about this budget, about the vote-by-mail process or about registering to vote, please reach out to us at mamaroneckptcouncil@gmail.com. One thing we have all come to appreciate over these last 10+ weeks is the importance of staying connected to our community. Please let us know how we can help you feel connected to our schools.
Our community has a track record of supporting — overwhelmingly — the education plan put forth by our district and our Board. Now, in the most unstable times many of us have ever lived through, our community is faced with the chance to make the single-most important investment choice available to us: to fund our children’s schools in a way that will minimize the interruption to the educational experience we have moved here to give them. Please vote!