Dear East Islip BOE,

The following is a comment from Newsday.com responding to the recent delay in state aid. It succinctly states the feelings of many, many community members. When are you going to start negotiating in the best interest of the community and the children? If the teachers don't like it, let them work elsewhere.




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      cjrich68

          It's par for the course to immediately assume it's, once again, the children who will suffer. Teachers and administrators are apparently immune from feeling any suffering by way of 100+ page contracts guaranteeing their collective happiness for all eternity. Just once I would like to witness real fiscal responsibility on the part of school boards when negotiating collective bargaining agreements. May I ask where we are afraid the teachers will go if they are not given what they want? Are they all going to flee into private industry and begin working 2000+ hours per year? Representatives (school boards included) are elected to act in the best interest of their constituents. It is time they begin doing so.

          o 12/16/09

Do you recall why the teachers were laid off in the 1990's. The reason was due to the fact that enrollments had decreased and these teachers were no longer needed. Some of the teachers were in the school districts for a number of years.

The way things are going with enrollments, this could happen once again. Young families with children are finding it harder and harder to remain on Long Island.

Edited by author 12-18-2009 03:13 PM
OPINION: LI needs legislators who'll work for the taxpayers

December 16, 2009 by ANDREA VECCHIO /

Andrea Vecchio is an activist with the East Islip TaxPAC and Long Islanders for Educational Reform.

As Gov. David A. Paterson's delay of state school-aid payments shows, New York State is facing financial collapse. Budget cuts will have to be made, and overtaxed Long Island property owners are set to be hit with a potential tax nightmare. Federal stimulus money will dry up, payouts for teacher pension-fund losses must be made, new federal taxes on "Cadillac" health plans are likely, and reductions to state school aid and STAR are all but certain.

Next November, the entire State Legislature will be up for re-election. So the question for all the legislative candidates must be: "Are you for the taxpayers or the public unions?" Our current legislators' records indicate that the people who really run Albany are special-interest groups, most notably the public-sector unions.

Reform efforts are routinely killed or distorted by legislators of both parties whose loyalty appears to be to powerful special interests, not to taxpayers. Case in point: The legislature finally enacted Tier V pension reform for future public employees this month, but not before the law was changed to add a guarantee of teacher retiree health benefits in perpetuity - no matter the cost.

The biggest disappointment has been the state's inability to pass a property-tax cap. The original proposal for the STAR program, enacted in 1997 to relieve the burden on homeowners, included a tax cap. But the legislature replaced it with a spending cap, to take effect only after a school budget was defeated two times at the ballot box. It doesn't work: In many districts whose voters have twice rejected school budgets, the tax rate has actually increased due to a number of exclusions in state law - effectively disenfranchising and demoralizing voters.

State taxpayers send more than $3 billion in STAR aid to school districts, and our taxes are higher than ever. That's because no reforms have been enacted to limit the true cost drivers, salaries and benefits, which in my district are responsible for 80 percent of school spending. Our legislators are too worried about union opposition to get it done.

In 2008, a tax cap was proposed by the Suozzi Commission. A bill passed in the Senate, but Speaker Sheldon Silver wouldn't allow it to come up for a vote in the Assembly. Instead, a circuit-breaker bill widely misrepresented as a "cap" passed in the Assembly - another useless "one-house bill."

In 2009, a new cap bill was drafted by the governor's office, but it included a poison pill: a huge carve-out for teacher pension fund costs. It died.

The 2010 session begins next month and so far there's no tax cap bill ready to go. The governor and the legislature support another spending cap instead - hardly surprising in an election year, but disappointing nonetheless.

The only hope is to have many new candidates committed to fighting for taxpayers and our economic survival running for office next November. No post should be left uncontested. Even good legislators have gone along in this system for too long, content with going though the motions, passing one-house bills never meant to go anywhere. All currently serving legislators need to be put on the spot by taxpayers and asked whether they'll finally support a genuine property tax cap.

Public unions buying legislators' loyalty for their members' support at the polls will only end when our representatives fear the taxpayers' wrath more than the power brokers. Actively involved voters and a new cadre of citizen legislators are a requirement to make it happen.

"Reforms" like spending caps or tax caps with exclusions for exploding pensions and health insurance will no longer do. Taxpayers and parents need to recruit and support candidates for the State Legislature who are pro-taxpayer and pro-school, committed to work for both an affordable, effective workforce and well-run, high-quality schools.

Watergate coming soon to the east islip board!!!!!!!!COVERUP!!!! STEP down Reed and Phillps!!!!!!!!!If a cop knows anything he should report it!!!!!!BYE BYE

No, it's Superintendent Chu who says it's a waste of money to educate special education children because they can't learn. He must be basing this assumption on East Islip statistics. Funny how neighboring school districts are able to educate their special education children and for less money to boot!

Let’s see…

The economy is a mess, state aid has been delayed, the board conducted a transportation revote based on an improper petition unnecessarily costing the taxpayers more money, Superintendent Chu feels special education students are uneducable, and the board continues to cover up abusive teachers and theft and vandalism by a member’s child and all the losers can do is obsessively post about their nemesis.

Edited by author 12-24-2009 11:18 AM
What is going on with this school board???? Always in the paper about bad press. We have to get rid of the three stooges before its too late. Dump the three stooges. Does anyone know why employees are being call by the DA??????Do we have a WATERGATE IN EAST ISLIP?????

Future NY teachers avoid state’s new pension plan
December 24, 2009 by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Prospective full-time teachers are scrambling to get into the current state pension tier before a reform measure designed to save New York taxpayers billions of dollars takes effect New Year’s Day.

The change adopted earlier this month means new hires as of Jan. 1 will receive less generous retirement benefits than teachers vested under the current pension plan.

New York State United Teachers alerted prospective teachers that they could “lock in” coverage under the more generous pension plan by working as a substitute teacher for just one day before Jan. 1.

State Teachers Retirement System records show that as of Tuesday, almost 3,200 workers have joined the system this year under the more generous tier. Last year, just more than 1,000 workers joined the system.


I'D WISH EVERYONE A MERRY CHRISTMAS BUT THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN AFFORD IT ARE THE TEACHERS.