Dr. Austin Gavin, newly hired interim assistant superintendent for business, stated that Manhasset students are accepted to ivy league schools because of academics and athletics. It is a Gold Coast school, he said, yet the place is in tumult. For a community in equilibrium, he continued, any one of the issues the Manhasset School District is grappling with could sink it: austerity, state audit, outsourcing transportation, neighboring school district fraud, superintendent departure, teacher negotiations and the reassessment which started everything. All are leviathan issues, said Dr. Gavin, and all are complicated issues, for example, in the past, one might say to acknowledge the pressure to settle the teacher negotiations quickly and remove that from the pot, but at what cost?

He went on to say, "compounding the problem is a lack of faith in the business office itself. In nine years there have been eight business managers. There are 122 districts so there is a need for 122 business managers. The school board created the Citizens Advisory Committees (CAC) to compensate for the lack of an efficient business office. The committees are genuine in their desire to find the truth and have done great work. They do research, going back historically and going forward as well." He had his first meeting with the CAC for Finance at the beginning of January and informed them that his leadership style is to invite them to come in and talk, to come in and look at the books.

The business office is evolving, changing, morphing, Dr. Gavin said, and is not the same operation as in the past. He said what he found in the business office was good, loyal people and good data and information which was not percolating to the top. He believes what the office deals with is taxpayer dollars and the taxpayer has a right to know how that money is spent. To combat a lack of credibility in the business office he proposes to call in people to sit and talk with him, people who are significant in the community either for or against an issue. He said he wants to talk to both formal and informal groups and wants to be invited into everybody's tent to hear their differing viewpoints. He underlined this approach by recounting that we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. He wants to talk to those people in the community who have emerged as voices representing constituent groups. Then, he wants to invite everyone into his tent, have all disparate groups hear the same thing, and construct a budget that works for everyone providing the best education in the most economical way.

He intends to provide extensive data on, for example, transportation outsourcing, discuss it with forces both pro and con, and make some difficult decisions. And special education costs are out of control, he said, with the district spending significantly more per student than the norm. He said salary and employee benefits constitute 75-78 percent of the budget, or, of every dollar spent 78 cents is spent on employee benefits and salaries.

He sees his job as restoring the integrity of the business office. He intends to do that by reaching out to the community, providing facts, being honest and forthright. He said that individuals or groups may not like what they hear but it will be the truth. He wants to reassure the community that their money is in good hands and being wisely spent so down the road they will feel comfortable voting for the budget.

What he is afraid of is that he is being promoted as the "Music Man," barreling into town able to fix everything. The reality, he said, is that all agree the budget needs to be leaner and more economical but no one wants cuts in their own back yard.

An immediate goal is to get off austerity, but, he cautioned, he is not going to strip the budget, creating greater problems in the future. "I will not artificially deflate the budget to make myself look good, move on while looking good, and leave this place in a wreck. I want people to say the changes I made were positive," he said. To that end he has been putting in mega hours, he said, leaving sometimes at 8 p.m. He has been working in the same field for 33 years and one can get burned out, but Austin Gavin said this particular job is such a challenge he has the same feeling as when he landed his first job. "This district intrigued me, it was a challenge, and when I leave here I want to leave it in the same condition as other places I have left, and I am proud of all the districts I have worked in," he stated.