Budget Schedule Announced

The East Hampton School Board has made the 2016-17 budgeting process official. At its meeting on Nov. 4, the board approved key dates and decided to take a line-by-line approach. Dates were set for reviews of each school building administration’s proposed budgets in December, reviews of departments’ proposed budgets in January, and seven work sessions between Jan. 26 and April 12.

Rich Burns, the superintendent, said that in the past few years “we really went through all the pens, paper, and pencils in the budget.” He said he was not sure a line-by-line analysis would yield any results since the bulk of the district’s major expenses, such as salaries and health benefits, are contractual.

Jackie Lowey, a school board member, said the line-by-line approach was “an enormous time draw” but pushed for it anyway, saying “there’s enormous credibility with the community” when it is done that way. “This year is going to be an enormously difficult year,” she said. “I think the public needs to see this discussion.” J.P. Foster, the school board president, agreed. “We owe it to the public, as painful as it can be. . . . It’s like showing your work on a test.” Rich Wilson, another school board member, said, “We always find something by going line-by-line.”

The board also heard a brief update on the lawsuit between the East Hampton School District and Sandpebble Builders, for which jury selection was to have begun last Thursday. Mr. Burns called the situation “out of our control” and said a judge had adjourned the case until December or January for reasons that were so far unclear. He said several subpoenas had been issued and that several members of the administration had expected to be in court before the adjournment was announced. An executive school board session was held prior to Tuesday’s special meeting to discuss the litigation.

Also approved at the meeting was a trip to Nicaragua in April 2016 for 15 students in the buildOn club, a service club connected to a nonprofit organization that builds schools in developing countries. Last year, East Hampton students built a school in Senegal. The trip will be the third for East Hampton High School students, who raise all the money needed for travel and necessary supplies. Last year that totaled more than $100,000, although this year it will amount to about $59,000.

“It’s really taken off,” the principal, Adam Fine, said. “This community builds these schools.”

The school board also approved a trip for the 40 students in the high school orchestra to a music competition in Boston in May. The timing means students will not miss any classes, which Bob Tymann, assistant superintendent for instruction, said is significant because the district often has to struggle with balancing overnight field trips with missing class time. Troy Grindle, the district’s music coordinator, called the opportunity “a very special one.”