March 3, 2022
Subject: FOIL Requests & Appeals to Commissioner
Dear North Shore Community,

The North Shore School District has been assailed by FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests and Appeals to the Commissioner of Education over the past several years.  We are legally obligated to defend ourselves, costing our taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars which could otherwise be used for instruction, facilities, or reduction of the tax levy.  The community at large deserves to know this, and you also deserve to know the results of those appeals to the Commissioner, which are matters of public record. Rather than rely on others’ condensed versions of those decisions, I encourage you to access the full versions of Decisions 18,048, 18,076, 18,079 and 18,090 on the New York State Department of Education website at http://www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/dcommissionersdecisions, where you can read the full Commissioner’s determinations for yourself.

Spoiler alert: The district prevailed in each and every case, and the complaints lodged against the district, the board and its administrators were all dismissed. While that is considerable solace, there is no mechanism for us to reclaim the taxpayer dollars that we were compelled to spend countering these specious claims. There remains one open matter before the Commissioner, filed in August of 2021.  The immediate relief sought by the petitioners was denied, which indicates that the petitioner has not been able to show a likelihood of success on the merits or irreparable harm, and we await a final decision.

In addition to dismissing the claims made against the District, on both procedural and merit-based grounds, the Commissioner has made some very direct and noteworthy statements about the management of the district’s finances.  In the most recent decision, dated February 17th (Decision 18,090) she wrote, “There is no information in those documents establishing that the board improperly retained excess surplus funds in its 2020-21 school year budget or that the November 19, 2020, budget transfer authorization was unlawful.” She continues, “Consequently, petitioners have failed to carry their burden of establishing the facts upon which they request relief.”  In her January 27th decision (Decision 18,079) she rejected a wholly fabricated claim that the District did not produce or present a budget status report in violation of Education law, when the district submitted documentary proof of those reports.  The Commissioner wrote, “This evidence refutes any suggestion that respondents violated their budget reporting obligations.” Decision 18,076 ends with the simple declaration: “I have considered the petitioners remaining considerations and find them without merit.”  Thus, in each and every instance, the Commissioner upheld the District’s financial, budget or election practices that were being challenged.

In light of the unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the district made the one-time emergency decision to use its available fund balance to pay for unavoidable reopening expenses and professional development necessitated by the pandemic.  The assigned fund balances were retained in accordance with the applicable and generally accepted accounting practices.  Moreover, the board made the decision in the best interest of the school district, in order to ensure fiscal stability and the continued operation of the district’s educational mission, programs and facilities, and to preserve the health and safety of students and staff.  The Commissioner acknowledged our extenuating circumstances and reminded us to review our budgeting practices going forward in order to remain within the statutory fund balance limit.  Because of careful planning, the district does not anticipate the need to assign any prior budget year surplus funds to address these concerns in the future school years.

 

In addition, given the inevitability of certain LIPA properties being removed from the tax rolls, the district has held state-legislated grant funds (not local taxpayer money) slightly in excess of the 4 percent of budget limit.  This is known as the “Marcellino-Lavine Grant,” which was secured under the leadership of past boards to prepare for the loss of tax dollars. We have made numerous inquiries about our ability to plan for that event by maintaining a larger fund balance.  Although the Commissioner did not directly address the retention of these grant funds, the Board has committed to deliberate at future Board meetings regarding how we can accomplish both tasks: comply with the statute and protect the district against future loss of LIPA-based tax revenue. The Board is obligated to be responsive to those who live in our district and attend our schools now, as well as those who will be here in the future. That is a difficult balancing act, but one this Board is prepared to accomplish.

To summarize:  we have been compelled to waste hundreds of thousands of dollars defending our actions, and we have prevailed in each case.  We have received guidance on how to prepare this year’s budget, which, like its predecessors, is a publicly developed, transparent and forward-looking document.

North Shore is an outstanding school district as measured against any metric, and we will continue to support the success of all our students on behalf of all resident taxpayers. You are invited to be a part of that by attending our Board Meetings in person, viewing our live-stream in real time, or seeing our videos posted on the District site. The dialogue at our meetings will be public, unlike the discourse of social media and private, non-transparent e-mail networks, where false claims and personal attacks circulate like virtual flotsam and jetsam.
Sincerely yours,
Tom Dolan                                                                                                                                                                         Interim Superintendent of Schools