Schools

Profile: Board Member Carlin Says Superintendent Search is Top Priority

Neil Carlin, a current Board of Education member, talks fiscal and budgetary management, the search for a new superintendent next year and more.

Current Board of Education member Neil Carlin is up for re-election after serving on the board for three years. In a phone interview, Carlin spoke on providing fiscal and budgetary management, searching for a new superintendent after current superintendent Edward Ehmann retires and more.

Other than serving on the board, what relationship do you have with the Smithtown Central School District?

I have lived in the district for 17 years, I have three children, one of who graduated from the district in 2009 fro Smithtown High School East, I have two children who are currently enrolled in Smithtown High School East.

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What issues concern you the most?

The most important role of board members as stated by state education are the selection of a superintendent – which by the way Mr. [Edward] Ehmann will be leaving June of 2012 – so the next board will select the next superintendent, which the search will probably start some time in the fall this year, that’s number one. Number two is the development of the budget. And number three, the negotiations and settlements of contracts. There are more roles, of course, but those are the three according to state education that the trustees are charged with.

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If re-elected to the board, what will you provide to both the board and to the school district?

Fiscal and budgetary management and leadership – in this difficult time where state aid has gone down and with a possibility of a tax cap coming, difficult financial decisions will need to be made and I think that my record shows that I am capable of delivering those types of decisions, making decisions that work well for the district. I can best give you that example by showing you … our actual expenditures of the district, the actual numbers, in 2006-07 the auditing spending was $107.5 million, in 2009-10 it was $203 million, so our real spending has gone up every year … and yet for the last several years we have not had to raise the tax levy until this year … if we’re spending $25 million more how does that work? Very simple, there were wasteful, inefficient lines in the budget because our real spending went up over $25 million, but we didn’t ask for an increase in $25 million to pay for it, so where did he money come from? We used the reserves and we found inefficient budgeting practices, inefficient budgeting practices were used in my opinion for the last 10 years, and now we run the district more effectively. That’s how we were able to have the minimal increases we had until this year when our state aid went down, that made it more difficult.

Why did you choose to run for re-election for the Board of Education?

I’m a concerned citizen – I’m a citizen, I’m a resident of the district and I do believe that given the state aid situation some difficult decisions have to be made and I think I’m familiar with the budget and the budgeting process … it’s going to be a very difficult job but I feel qualified to do it. The other part is we’re in negotiations with several bargaining units and I feel that it’s important that a fair settlement is made for everyone, all parties concerned, and frankly I have my concerns if my opponent [JoAnne McEnroy] were to be selected … I think there is potentially a conflict of interest for someone who was on the executive committee of the teachers union who advocated for the teachers, understandably so, in their negotiations, [that] is now running for a position that has responsibility to advocate for the taxpayers. There’s a potential for a significant conflict of interest especially since negotiations are supposed to be held with the most-strict confidence.

Why should you be elected?

I would just ask people to look at the terrific record, I think in difficult economic times we have delivered strong education while being fiscally sound in our practice … I’ve been on the business affairs committee since I was on the board so I would ask the voters take a look at the last three budgets as well as the fact that I was instrumental in saving over $5 million in healthcare for the changing of the healthcare plan from self-insured to a consortium, [the] superintendent vouched for the fact that I was the most significant voice in the public for advocating that. Additionally, I helped renegotiate as a business affairs chairman a bus contract that had stalled when the superintendent was convinced he could not get a better contract at a certain point in time and I went in there with another board member and we renegotiated a contract that saved several millions in dollars over the life of the contract.

Check back Friday for another candidate profile, JoAnne McEnroy, who is running opposed to current board member Neil Carlin.


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