Letter: Our children deserve nothing less than “Yes”
As a graduate from our district that chose to return here to raise my own family, I can wholeheartedly say that I love Northport, and our schools are no exception. It is no secret that the past few years have been difficult for our community as issue after issue has divided us. So now we are here, one budget-vote away from what could be a contingency budget, which in my opinion is a sign of a wounded community. This BOE, administration and our community members are tasked with more than voting on a school budget, or school programming, or maintaining school grounds; we are tasked with repairing this school community – for our children.
Like many of you, I’ve had countless conversations since the last vote and about what lies ahead for our children and our community and they all boil down to one thing: we all love our kids and have their best interest at heart. I am not trying to take away from anyone’s agenda or cause, but am here to say that now is the time that we must find places of agreement, compromise and acceptance in order to move forward as a community and start on a path of continued improvement. No one is saying our district is perfect, but we are far from broken. Northport-East Northport is truly an exceptional district. Budget presentations with numbers, charts, balances, and lingo only present abstract representations of what is behind them – our kids.
Our students have opportunities offered through the arts, sciences, a repertoire of electives and extra- and co-curriculars, schools within a school, course offerings aligned with future careers in technology, field trips around the globe, involvement in expansive community-service projects, and more. The average person doesn’t know that we have vocational programming right in our schools, such as auto classes and a child-care program, that many districts have to pay BOCES for. Our community needs to know more about programs that make our schools different such as the sheer volume of IB & AP courses, the academy of finance or the environmental team. They need to know about the opportunities our students have such as travelling to Europe, Central America or Africa for various cultural and volunteer experiences. Our schools provide relevant opportunities that will allow them to be productive and well-rounded members of society.
It was just about one year ago that I was hanging signs at the top of Ocean Avenue for each student in my neighborhood who would be graduating (or moving up) mid-pandemic. At that time it was the small things like parades and signs that went a long way for morale for our kids that were missing out on so much… how we all wished they could enjoy a normally joyous time of the year instead of having to worry about things like a global pandemic. Thinking back to that time it is hard to believe that we are now at the end of another school year in which our children endured worries and restrictions well beyond their years and we are now faced with a potential contingency budget. So I have to ask, knowing full well that a contingency budget will impact our kids in one way or another, is this the year? Should our children have to endure a year of contingency restrictions on the heels of the debacle that was 2020 and 2021? Whatever your cause is...property value, masks, spending, special ed, playgrounds, boom trucks, NMS, social distancing... could this be the year that we all pause on our “adult agendas” and make a “child-based” decision to vote “Yes” on the budget and spend the remaining days of this school year celebrating.
To end, I implore the BOE, administration and community to share facts, be respectful to one another, and keep our youngest community members as the backdrop to your decision on June 15th. This isn’t about winning or losing, it is about coming together as a community to make a decision that is best for our children as we continue on a path of improvement. I truly believe as we move into the 21-22 school year that our children deserve nothing less than everything OUR schools have to offer, which requires this budget to pass!
Bethany Pokorny, Northport
