Following a long and arduous discussion in which each Amityville School Board member outlined their concerns, the trustees voted last week to adopt the budget recommendations of Amityville School Superintendent Dr. Brian DeSorbe. The decision, reached after hours of lively discussion and debate, keeps athletics, music and art programs in the district in place, as well as the academic structure that De Sorbe said has enabled "hard working teachers and students to achieve historical academic advances in the district in the past two years."

"I want to thank the board for its hard work on behalf of the children of Amityville," DeSorbe told the trustees and the public following the vote. "When I came to this district, the academic program was adrift; there was no oversight and I am confident that maintaining the structure we put into place will continue to work for the children of Amityville."

The vote came after weeks of reviewing the $59.9 million that the district was required, under state law, to adopt following a second budget defeat in late June. That budget required that the distrct cut almost $2.4 million from its second spending proposal, and discussion over the last several weeks involved how those cuts would be made. De Sorbe presented a plan that kept all programs in place but that also increased class size in grades K-6 to a maximum of 24 students, set a minimim class size at the secondary level of 15, and reduced teaching staff, including five reading specialists at the elementary level.

"The problem I have with this plan is that everything seems to be falling on the back of the elementary level," said Trustee Michelle Sikhrangkur who wanted to consider other options in order to save reading teachers, including reducing or eliminating sports, music and art. "There has been no discussion here tonight about how cutting reading teachers is going to impact on students."

Board President Diane Egglinger, who offered a counter proposal that would have eliminated the district’s subject coordinators, told De Sorbe that while the district has moved forward, its test scores are still among the lowest on Long Island. "This district still has a lot of students coming to us who can’t read and while all of these other things are nice.... and the ideal situation is to have them all... there is no way we can do that with a contingency budget."

One resident agreed that maintaining a reading remediation program was important. Jackie Allen said that the presence of the reading teachers has brought about positive change and that they should be maintained. "If you do not have the structure in place for remediating, we are going to have problems," she said.

DeSorbe countered that dismantling the educational structure, which includes coordinators, would be "disastrous," and that Amityville is no longer a remedial school. The district’s programs and plans, he said, have to "move children forward."

"Every teacher in this district is a reading teacher," said De Sorbe in an effort to assure the board that the reduction in reading teachers would not hurt the students. "And while these are hard choices, I believe that with leadership and coordination in place we will be able to maintain what we have achieved here."

Trustee Stephannie Andrews pointed out that dismantling the educational structure to focus on remediation did not address the needs of the larger student population.

"If we do not address the needs of the middle students and the high achievers, we are going to make this district nothing but a remedial district," said Andrews. "We need to move forward.

"It is unrealistic to believe that [principals] will be able to (adequately) oversee curriculum in specific areas such as math and science," said Trustee Charles Walters, who also voted to approve the superintendent’s proposal after much soul searching. "But I have mixed feelings because we are in a very difficult position because I understand that some things have to go."

Resident, Frank McGee told the board that adopting the superintendent’s recommendations would be the responsible thing to do.

"If you have a general, you have to listen to the general if he has not led you into disaster," he said. "And if you don’t have sargeants then you don’t have an army and you are really in trouble. If [a leader] has gotten you results, you have to take his professional opinion. If he hasn’t, then you fire him."

The difficulties the board faced in coming to grips with the cuts were probably expressed best by Trustee Juliette Jordan-Thompson, who also eventually voted to approve the superintendents recommendations.

"These are very difficult choices we have to make here tongiht," she said. "Children in this district, from the elementary level through the high school level, have to have a basic education. There are 3,000 students in Amityville we have to think about and they are all my children."

Students, parents, residents and staff crowded into the Park North board room for the meeting, which did not break up until a little past midnight. Many were there to tell the board that preserving programs like sports and music, was vital to the district.

"I am hoping for a soccer scholarship so that I can go to a good college," said student Christopher Nehring.

But apparently the school board, which had been reviewing the cost of these programs, had already made a decision to keep athletics in place, and discussions about cutting them were not even raised during the meeting.

"I think they got the message," said one parent standing outside the board room during one of the two breaks the board took to go into executive session. "The public would not stand for it."

Throughout the meeting, it was obvious that the choices the board was about to make were difficult and painful. Egglinger told the large crowd gathered for the meeting that she was glad to see them there but wished that they had been part of the numerous budget meetings that the board held when putting the budget in place the first time. "If 34 more people had come out and voted "yes" on the budget, we would not be here tonight and would not be in this position making these tough choices," she said.

McGee told the board that he and others understood the board’s position. "You are not to blame," he told them. "I am to blame because I did not go out and vote. It is my fault."