Hasting Resident Tony Wan Responds to Eric Sweeting’s Letter

The following is parent and resident Tony Wan’s reply to Eric Sweeting’s 6/20 letter about the petition to rescind the appointment of the Assistant Superintendent.
Read Eric’s original letter below. Read the petition, view 458 signatories, and read the comments.

Mr. Eric Sweeting
Board of Education
Hastings on Hudson, NY 10706

Eric,

This letter pertains to your email response to Jodi Hirschman’s petition of the assignment of Dr Rhonda Cohen as Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Personnel submitted on June 18, 2009.

Your response to the petition detailed a list of five items that reduced the cost of the school budget and changes that where deemed necessary by the BOE as alternatives.  The five items are a positive improvement of a stream lined administration, which by the way reduced the larger amount of tax increase on the community.  But as a fact, the five items you listed are part of a continued increase of taxes and a burden which we as a community must put a leash on.

The point I am making is that we as a community have had a school tax increase every year.  No matter the changes made by you and or the BOE, taxes continue to rise.  According to the school budget enrollment has decreased but operating cost have increased.  The school has an average per capita of $23,000+ per student, which does provide a sound education, but has finally boiled over and the burden on families needs to come to end.  In over spent economic times and job losses reaching millions, the schools in Hastings need to learn how to work with what they have, not what they deem is necessary.

In 2007 Dr Shaps and the BOE created the “deemed necessary position”, Director of Curriculum, which is now a salary burdening the tax payers a $140,000+ annually, with benefits. In NYC my wife, who is an Assistant Principal at an elementary school, is one of the hundred’s AP”S who work with the Principals developing its schools curriculum every school year. Granted the student per capita is only an average of $9,000 per student in NYC and the education is not as sound as in Hastings but at a staggering $14,000 difference?  And now the BOE and Dr. Shaps would like to promote Dr Cohen to Asst Superintendent, increase the salary by $18,000+ and add a new tax payer burden, “tenure”, after 2 ½ years of employment in our district, now this is obscene.

I am a self employed owner of a company in the construction field in NYC.  My company prides itself on reducing the cost of a construction project by thousands of dollars. These savings are immediately passed on to the client and a fiscally responsible construction budget is created for all involved and agreed upon.  If I were to reduce the cost and tell the client that they can go purchase the most expensive “toilet”, I would be flushing a part of my companies profits down that “toilet”, because I’ve reduced my cost and enabled the client to spend a percentage of my profits I’ve given back.  My comparison is that of your five items, save here, spend it there.  How about just save for a rainy day, the future budget and or no tax raise.

Lastly, as a concerned home owner and parent of two children who will be attending the Farragut Middle School this September, I urge you to listen.  There are families in Hastings who pay a whopping $20,000 a year in taxes and do not even have children of school age any more.  I will not and can not see myself in 8 years paying a 1/3rd increase in taxes which have already increased 100% to $16,000 a year since we moved to Hastings in 2003 and worry about college tuition and my own retirement.

Regards,

Tony Wan, Hastings on Hudson Resident

Posted by Jane Cody