After two challenging years coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, which the Wainscott School Board president described as “probably the darkest moment in the history of the district,” the school has “met the challenge” from both a financial and program perspective, he told the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee on Saturday.
David Eagan spoke to the citizens group ahead of the May 20 vote for school board and on the district’s proposed $4.99 million, tax cap-compliant 2025-26 budget, which includes a 2.59-percent tax increase, or about $12 per $1,000 of assessed value.
William Babinski, an incumbent, is running unopposed for re-election to the school board.
The proposed budget, Mr. Eagan said, will allow the district to fund all of its programs and build back reserves, “which, quite frankly, two years ago were depleted and we were in a very precarious position” owing to an influx of families who left New York City in the pandemic. But “I think we’re trending in the right way,” he said, and the board is “confident that we’ve hit bottom and have come back significantly.”
News on the program side is better still, he said. The school’s partnership with the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center has expanded, with the center picking children up at the end of the school day and taking them to Bridgehampton for learning and after-school care.
“It’s a parent-paid program, but it’s very, very reasonable,” Mr. Eagan said. “We were able to work with them to get their license broadened to include 4-year-olds. We’ll now be able to offer that to the parents who are working all day.”
Around 16 Wainscott School students are expected next year, Mr. Eagan said. For fourth graders, “we’re going back to what I consider the heart and soul of our school.” Before the pandemic, the school functioned as an open-classroom, collaborative learning experience, but “that was all taken away by Covid because we weren’t able to maintain that structure and comply with all the Covid regulations. So we were forced into a more traditional school classroom format.”
The school will eliminate a teaching position, however. Four full-time teachers were needed “because of the classroom format we were forced into,” Mr. Eagan said. With enrollment back to a stable number, “we just can’t justify having four full-time teachers in the building. . . . So we made a very hard decision. We’re going to let one of our teachers go next year, but we’ll still have three full-time teachers for 16 children, which is still a ratio that I think most people would be envious of.”
“I’m confident that we’re presenting the best scenario to our taxpayers and to our families,” he said. “So we ask for your support on May 20.”