Bee Editorial
District should reconsider paying for competitions
When a school district's budget exceeds $152 million, it's time to take a hard look at the numbers. That figure may in part be due to mandates, but the district chose to have five assistant superintendents and principals that make more than $100,000.

The proposed annual cost to run the Williamsville Central Schools is $37 million more than the 2008 budget for the Town of Amherst, which is $115 million.

One of the new items in the district's preliminary budget is $177,556 to support student participation in competitions. Those costs were previously paid by the individual academic and music groups, which raised funds on their own. But when Section VI pulled funding for athletes, the proposed funding appeared in the district's budget.

At least Superintendent Howard Smith took a step back to look at the big picture and decided to include more funding for all areas of competition. But should the entire district pay for these competitions when it pays for training and practice time, equipment and materials?

Why can't this budget line stay where it was last year - at zero dollars - and not jump 178 percent? Especially when the preliminary budget was presented with a 4.69 percent increase.

Don't get us wrong. We support local athletes, musicians and scholars. That is visible every week in the paper, but a $177,556 increase needs some questioning.

We have run numerous stories about fundraising events by these groups - jazz bands being just one example. In the past, if those students wanted to participate in an event outside the regular school schedule, they had to pay for it themselves.

The School Board has already expressed concern with the preliminary budget total, and we encourage members to look into this budget line and find out exactly what the past practice has been for organizations and music groups and paying for competitions.

To ask residents to pay for yet another program, especially when tax rates could rise 3.3 percent, is a lot.

Smith referred to a slowing economy as being an issue for the budget process. Well, the story is no different for every resident struggling to pay bills on top of ever-rising taxes. For some residents it's becoming nearly impossible.

One school official said they would be going back and taking another look at the budget based on board members' and residents' response. Do your part, attend the open forum at 7:30 p.m. March 11 in the district office board room, 105 Casey Road, and speak up on this issue.