Nine members of the Independent Citizens Advisory Committee met with Dr. Bozzomo, superintendent of schools, on Monday evening, Jan. 26 to discuss the school budget and proposed bond referendum. He said that the school board had decided to delay the bond referendum until next fall. Meanwhile he was working on his budget proposal for the coming year, the effort to negotiate a new contract with the teachers' union under the Taylor Law, and an effort to open contract renegotiations with the teamsters' union for the services group. The need was forcefully expressed to him by several members that the upcoming school budget needed to show a zero growth, if not a reduction, rather than the customary three-plus times the inflation rate, if anyone was to be convinced that the school authorities could manage and control expenditures of the size of the proposed bond issue.

Dr. Bozzomo was more candid than usual. In discussing how we all got to this point, and what steps could be taken to improve the situation, two significant matters became apparent.

He indicated that about 80 percent of the school budget is related to salaries and fringes. The teacher's union has had a sweetheart contract in place for many years. In addition in prior years the board provided lucrative perks such as 100 percent health care to retiring teachers. These perks should now be revisited in these times of crushing taxes. The teachers now have so many work rules in place limiting their performance, that it is time for significant numbers of givebacks so that productivity, as well as performance can be restored. The standard work year is about 1,800 hours. The teachers work about 1,100 hours per year and are paid extra for many assigned duties. About 250 of 550 employed are teachers. The other group is essentially support and overhead staff that should be reduced stringently in numbers to bring the ratio of adults to students down to the 7 to 1 it is in comparable Nassau County schools.

The school board provides no guidance or direction to the school superintendent, although he says he carries out the board's direction. This has probably gone on for some years. They do not give him any limits. Therefore, he and his predecessors expand the system as necessary to satisfy requests. Budget growth results and is justified as offering a "rich education." The school system is now a "boutique" of offerings from which children and their parents can choose whatever they want under the guise of "education." Yet the product of this school system, in terms of percentage of graduates accepted at colleges, is no different than at other comparable Long Island schools at two-thirds the cost per child. This is one measure of waste and diversion of resources from the primary mission of the school system - college preparedness.

In spite of the many concerned citizens who have expressed themselves against the budget growth and the plans to enlarge the school buildings at many meetings since last fall, the school board has not listened. It has not directed the superintendent to curtail budget growth or find alternatives to his plan to enlarge the high school building.

The school board is in the process of preparing the next budget. For several years, its own handpicked Citizen's Advisory Committee for Finance has strongly - strongly - recommended budget limitations in their written reports. The school board has ignored this counsel. This year the CAC said, "The resounding message is the need to rein in and exert control over the district's level of spending." And, "The issue of spending by the district needs to be brought under the board's control, rather than having the costs and programs dictate the board's actions." It is more important this year than ever, that citizens attend all school board budget meetings no matter how late the hour, to express their views.

Thomas Crombie