Staten Island budget cuts meeting

Bruce CotlerPietromonaco listens as PS 57 5th-grader Yatta (left) and 4th-grader Kayla read a list of cuts their school has endured. More than 100 parents, teachers, students, administrators and education advocates attended a meeting at PS 58, Staten Island, on Nov. 29 to strategize ways to prevent further budget cuts to schools. The meeting was hosted by the UFT, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators and the Staten Island Federation of PTAs. Those who attended were given the facts on how three years of cutbacks have cost the borough $40 million worth of services and 400 teachers, and then were signed up to join visits to local lawmakers in December to make them aware of the need to protect education. “We need them to commit to coming up with more revenue,” UFT Staten Island Borough Representative Emil Pietromonaco said. “We’re not telling them how to do it, but something has to be done.” Sam Pirozzolo, the president of Community Education Council 31, said some of the spending choices by the Department of Education were just as harmful as the cuts. The DOE now spends $40 million on no-bid contracts, Pirozzolo said, as opposed to just $700,000 when Mayor Michael Bloomberg assumed control of schools in 2002. And the DOE now employs 136 attorneys, up from just six nine years ago, he said. City Councilwoman Debi Rose told the group, “Something is wrong with a system that grows more in no-bid contracts than it does in keeping class sizes under control.” She noted with approval that earlier that day the City Council had voted to extend the hotel tax, which Bloomberg wanted to end, a move that puts $40 million annually into city coffers.

Bruce CotlerUFT District 31 representative Sean Rotkowitz (standing, right) and others distribute postcards to be sent to elected officials, asking them to “stand up for kids.”