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Westhampton Beach High School
The Westhampton Beach Board of Education unanimously adopted a proposed $61,544,294 budget for the 2022-23 school year on Monday. The financial plan is $1,435,757 more than this current year’s, for a 2.39 percent increase. The projected 2.14 percent tax levy increase, up $689,416, is in compliance with the state cap on tax levy increases.
More than three-quarters of the operating costs, or $44,414,475, covers programming, while the capital costs — largely building and grounds expenses — make up $10,962,554, and administration, or business office function overheads, total $6,167,265.
Superintendent Dr. Carolyn Probst said taxpayers paid $4,496.03 this school year for a home assessed at $750,000. This is projected to increase $96.21 for a home assessed at the same value, to $4,592.24, which equates to an increase of $8.02 per month from the 2021-22 school year.
Included in the budget, following questions and comments made during the April 4 board meeting, are the addition of four paid assistant coach positions at the varsity level — for baseball, softball and boys and girls soccer. Board President Suzanne Mensch said the district is looking to add more paid positions long-term.
But several residents, like Robert Mckee, wishes there was more funding for students with special needs. His 10-year-old daughter, who is dyslexic, took part in the Wilson Reading System, a program he said he found beneficial for her.
Mckee said he was disappointed to find out there was no funding for the program following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My daughter is going into middle school with a second grade reading level. I feel like I’m failing her as a parent,” he said. “I feel like my daughter was tossed aside.”
Probst said she believes the father would benefit from a meeting with her to more specifically address his daughter’s needs.
One parent said she requested to have her child tested, but was told there weren’t funds in the budget to do so. Another said her son, now a college graduate, was a part of the Wilson Reading System from fourth grade on. She said he now has no problems reading, and said, “the program led him to success.”
Residents can attend a budget hearing Monday, May 9, at 7 p.m. in the high school library. The budget vote and trustee election is on Tuesday, May 17, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the high school’s large group instruction room.
Mensch also read a lengthy statement prior to public comment April 11 in response to remarks made during last Monday’s meeting, some of which were published in an April 7 article in The Southampton Press. Some of her remarks were regarding the code of conduct, which she said is updated regularly, and proposed amendments discussed during the board’s policy committee meetings.
“One area that is specifically not in the board’s daily purview is student discipline,” Mensch said. “Individual student issues are handled at a building level, and from there they escalate to central office administration, if appropriate. The administrators address issues based on incidents, and subsequent investigations are according to our student code of conduct.”
She said all incidents raised during the April 4 meeting were reported and addressed at the building level, but said in the past, there have been arguments over issues the district was never informed of. She added that comments made last week about alleged information is just a small portion of what administrators use to make their decisions, and added that a school resource officer is also on-hand to be proactive and reactive.
Mensch said there also were comments that the board did not respond to — most of what was discussed by parents — but stated: “Virtually all of those issues discussed in public comment were about specific incidents and specific students. The board cannot and will not comment on any student issue in any way, even if that student’s parents speak in public about their child and their situations.”
Mensch did say, though, that she is not going to suggest that the district gets it right every time when it comes to investigating incidents and serving consequences.
“We are all human beings, we all make mistakes, and we all learn from them,” she said. “What I can say is that every administrator is putting in 1,000 percent effort to handle situations appropriately.”
The board president said the district has also been monitoring changing demographics for decades, and said a recently-instated diversity and inclusivity committee, which has been broken into smaller building-focused subgroups, is scheduled to present at the May 9 board meeting.
“In my 12 years as a board member, I’ve never encountered an incident here where a student was disciplined or not disciplined based on his or her race or ethnicity,” Mensch said. “All students face consequences solely due to their actions.”
Mensch also said the board sees tremendous value in face-to-face contact post-pandemic, adding when looking into live-streaming meetings — as has been requested by community members since the mandate to do so was lifted in June 2021, when the state disaster emergency ended — the cost was prohibitive.
“This board is opposed to spending significant budget dollars on that, thereby taking away those dollars from student programming,” she said, adding that the board is looking into recording the meetings and posting them at a later date.
Some parents, like Kevin Minassian, offered to publicly fund a camera and storage space for archived meetings. Another argued the board is missing the point of what the public is trying to convey.
“Everything seems to be done in secret — behind closed doors — and the decisions are already made before you get here. You’re not looking for our input, nor do you consider it, because the decision was already made,” he said. “We get blank stares back, no response and no further discussion unless we bring it up again.”
Resident Wendy Fisher took issue with the fact that the board does not inform the public about the topic of each night’s executive session. According to the New York State School Boards Association, the motion to go into executive session “must identify the subject matter of the executive session with particularity.”
Executive session is a portion of a school board meeting that is not open to the public, and is permitted only for a limited number of specific purposes that include matters that will imperil the public safety if disclosed; information relating to current or future investigation or prosecution of a criminal offense that would imperil effective law enforcement if disclosed; discussions involving proposed, pending or current litigation; collective negotiations; and the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation, among other things.
When Mensch called for a motion to adjourn the meeting and enter executive session, she informed the public it was to discuss contract negotiations.
