Despite the Lancaster Central School District’s (LCSD) Board of Education continual public encouragement plea to attend the budget work sessions over the past several years, most times only a handful of residents attend the work sessions.

This past Monday evening there were 40-50 Lancaster High students and perhaps 7-8 residents who attended the regular meeting and stayed for the latest budget proposal presentation – where they learned LCSD has another $538,539 in cuts to make to get to the maximum allowed tax levy increase of 3.76%.

Gratified by the large group of students attending, the BOE’s pleasure was short-lived when a resident addressing the board at the public comment session posed a question to the students: “Did you understand what just took place here?”

He asked for a show of hands from the students and asked them to reply honestly whether they had any idea as to what was presented and whether they would be able to articulate the information back. Only one student raised her hand. He told the group it was very important that they did as they did understand, as their future very likely could be significantly impacted by what is taking place in putting together an education budget today. “We are getting hammered with taxes. It is important you understand the budget process. These guys (BOE) are trying to do the best they can but keep in mind that 46 out of 50 states are running deficits and we are supposed to be picking up the slack.”

When addressing the BOE, the writer made the following comments:

I would like to follow up on what the previous speaker touched on and namely ask the attending students why they are here tonight. It is because that is a requirement set by your government program teacher, right? The students acknowledged it was required.

Did Mr. Abraham prepare you for this meeting’s agenda? No was the overall response. The same can be said before you attend town board meetings, correct? The response was again given that there was no preparation for the meeting.

What you should be made aware of is that there is information on both the town and school district websites to alert the public on what the meeting agenda is going be, documents provided to inform the public on the language of the resolutions, data charts, etc. In turn, Mr. Abraham should be referring you to the websites and preparing you for what the meetings will entail and were you can even have positive input.

Unfortunately, tonight’s PowerPoint presentation was not on the website this afternoon. I suggested Ms. Phillips get it on the website ASAP and it was there early Tuesday morning. However, there was much information already posted on the website from previous BOE meetings that covered the great majority of what was presented Monday evening.

The old clique that information is power holds more true today than ever before, and by law municipalities and school districts that have websites now have to provide such information, and are doing so.

It is important that not only the students present but the taxpaying public itself understand the nuances and difficulty in putting together and balancing a budget; especially at a time when state and federal aid monies have been cut.

At the same token, I would suggest the board to look into saving money by not accepting reassessment settlements by rote just because the town was agreeable to such settlement. The recent Lancaster Airport Inc. request to lower the assessment by $275,000 will cost the district over $40,000; a starting teacher’s salary.

At the same time I suggested the students prepare themselves before attending town and school board meetings by looking at the information provided on their websites before to understand what is being discussed and to even provide input. The world is loading you guys down with debt. It is important you have a clear understanding on the difficulty involved in putting together a budget; to know where the money is coming from, how it is being spent, how much school aid has been cut, how big the deficit is, and how the deficit will be addressed to keep programs and jobs while not further burdening the taxpayer.

It is unfortunate that the public poorly attends the BOE budget work sessions to see first-hand the time, effort and angst that go into finalizing and proposing a budget that maintains all programs, teachers and activities to the extent possible while ensuring that said budget is acceptable to a taxpaying public that is under financial duress.

Throughout the budget work session process the District reviews expenditures and revenues line-by-line. As happened Monday evening, a PowerPoint presentation was made summarizing department appropriations and revenues. After attending the work sessions, the public should have a good understanding of the process, the deficit, and reasons for. It becomes quite obvious what has contributed most to the deficit and where cuts need to be made.

It is disturbing to hear of the federal and state aid cuts that have adversely impacted the budget. It is equally disturbing hearing that the District will be using $9.65 million in fund balance and reserves to lower the shortfall. We must be near approaching that cliff that Superintendent Edward Myszka referred to last budget year where such reserves will no longer be available.

As usual, I commend the BOE for the voluntary work they do and where many times they are addressed disrespectfully and paid little recognition. Don’t shoot the messengers! Unlike Obama Care, you have the opportunity to know what’s in it (budget) before you vote on it.