On Tuesday evening Sachem Patch went to Gatelot Elementary School and spoke with voters on their way out of the building to get a gauge on where they voted and why. Here's a wrap of some of the thoughts we gathered from voters, all of whom we protected with anonymity.
From residents who voted YES:
"I don't want [the school] to lose any programs. Especially GATE and kindergarten, for my friends that have kids going into kindergarten. And [my son] just approved for GATE next year."
"It's for my children. My children are still here and they need everything they can get out of this. I think the board did what they could to make it what it is. I think they dropped the ball for a couple of years and it finally caught up. We're gonna pay a little bit, but our kids are not gonna pay, which would be the best part."
"We have another child in kindergarten and a son who's gonna play sports."
"We can't afford to lose anything. We care about our children and we care about the values of our home. I don't know who to put the blame on. I think it's two-sided because the way that the aid was pulled and then put back, so it was uncertain and I think [the board] did the best that they could do with the uncertainty."
"I'd rather pay more and keep things the way they are, then lose the value of our homes and not have children get what they need."
"I did it for the kids. For the future of Sachem. Because we need it. We have no Sachem without this passing."
"I'm concerned about classroom size. I'm concerned about the kids that won't have anywhere to go, as far as activities are concerned. And I'm really concerned about the sales of our homes."
Residents who voted NO:
"We don't have the money. But even more than that it's the board's mismanaging what they do have. They don't know how to manage the money."
"[The board] spends money on things that are unneccessary to create a good education for these kids. There are a lot of things that they can spend money on in a better way and they don't even try."
"They started out at 16 percent and they neglect to tell you where they are spending the money. They just tell you where they're gonna take it away. There's probably stuff that could be cut and they're not cutting it. They're just cutting the things that are going to affect you."
"I think [the board] knows what strings to pull to get you to say Yes no matter what. They want to cut the things that hurt you."
"We're getting killed in taxes. My house is six, seven-thousand dollas a year in taxes. LIPA is killing us. Keyspan is killing us. It's phenomenal. There's times where you just have to say, something's gotta be stopped a little bit. Why can't we survive on our current budget? I mean, people are losing their houses. Look at how many foreclosures are here now. Pretty soon you're gonna see half of Long Island with gray plywood up on the windows."
The Board of Education will go back to the drawing board beginning with tonight's meeting at Samoset auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
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