Letter to the Editor: Fresh Faces Needed on Commack School Board

Dear Editor:

On May 21, 2013, taxpayers in Commack, and indeed all of Long Island, will vote in school budget and board trustee elections.  This year the Commack school district will be seeking voter approval of a proposed $179.5 million budget, an $8.1 million increase from last year.  Since 2006, the school budget has increased approximately 32-percent or at nearly twice the rate of inflation during the same period.

While the reason behind these increases and whether they have been unavoidable is debatable. There can be no doubt that the size of the budget has grown larger each year and will continue to increase. 

Despite this growth, Commack has continued to maintain a school board consisting of five trustees.  The maximum number of trustees permitted by law is nine.  It appears that up until the mid-1990’s, the district usually operated with more than five trustees.  Yet, that was at a time when the budget was a fraction of the size it is today.  Currently, other school districts with budgets comparable in size to Commack’s have at least seven trustees, including Three Village ($178 million), Central Islip ($176 million), Patchogue-Medford ($162 million), North Babylon ($107 million), Smithtown ($215 million), Half Hollow Hills ($220 million).  The Northport-East Northport school district ($154 million) has nine trustees.  It is now time for Commack’s school district to do the same. 

In short, at nearly $180 Million, Commack’s school budget has simply grown too large to leave in the hands of only five trustees to manage.  The interests of the Commack community will be better served by having more people participate in making budgetary decisions and in the overall operation of the district.  This is especially true considering the continuing difficult economic climate.  Newly created seats on the board will hopefully also bring with it new people with novel ideas and perspectives to address the fiscal challenges that lay ahead. 

It is for these reasons that I submitted a petition to the district on March 21, 2013, signed by over 300 residents, to place a proposition on this year’s ballot to add two trustees to Commack’s school board, thereby raising the total seats on the board to seven. Should the voters approve the proposition, a special election will then be held to fill the newly created positions.  

I urge the Commack Community to vote in favor of the proposition and that they deliver a mandate by overwhelmingly doing so. 

Sincerely,

Jim Tampellini

Commack, NY