Editorial: School budgets face voters May 19

East End voters head to the polls Tuesday, May 19, with school districts trying to keep tax increases down without hollowing out the programs families expect from their schools.

Across the region, administrators are wrestling with rising transportation costs, mounting health insurance expenses and growing special education obligations — even as enrollment continues to erode in many districts.

Shoreham-Wading River is reducing staff through attrition after a 15% enrollment decline, though district officials say programs will remain intact as part of the proposed $90 million budget.

Riverhead’s proposed budget increase is tied heavily to special education costs, including a $1.4 million jump in transportation for those students alone.

Meanwhile, among the North Fork school districts, Greenport faces the toughest vote of the group. First-year Superintendent Beth Doyle is asking residents to approve a tax increase above the cap while reducing staffing as she tries to pull back from years of reserve spending.

The budget numbers matter. The school board races matter, too.

Young families continue getting priced out of the East End, and the enrollment trend in many districts is hard to ignore. Schools are still expected to offer strong academics, athletics, arts programs and extracurriculars. That math only works for so long.

That pressure is already changing how schools operate.

Districts share sports teams, AP classes, administrators and specialty programs. Conversations that would have been politically radioactive a decade ago are now happening more openly.

On the South Fork, Southampton and Tuckahoe are already studying a possible merger. Nothing like that is being proposed here. But Mattituck-Cutchogue Superintendent Shawn Petretti has been one of the few local officials willing to publicly acknowledge where the numbers may eventually lead if enrollment keeps dropping and state aid formulas change.

He’s right to raise the issue.

The people running for school boards should be willing to engage in that conversation too — now, while districts still have options, not years from now when the choices become far more difficult.

Everybody wants the same thing: strong schools, manageable taxes and opportunities for students.

Keeping all three in balance is getting harder every year.