Schools Superintendent Response To Concerned Faculty Member, Parent and Long-Time Ardsley Resident

The following is the communication from Dr. Khoury to Dan Mulholland -

From: "Charles Khoury"
To: "Mulholland"
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:28:26 -0500
Subject: Re: My concerns with the direction of Ardsley

Dan:

I appreciate your feelings and your desire to express your thoughts to members of the staff and to the Board. As a resident of this community you have that right and as a respected, long-term former teacher I granted your request to maintain your staff email account for a year so that there would be a smooth transition between you and the new senior class advisor. I'm disappointed that you chose to use this platform to express your views to all, views that are based on erroneous information.

Nobody in the schools would disagree with your statement that every reduction in staff means less for our kids. As I said in my letter to the staff and in my e-Blast to the community, not a single reduction in any line item is desirable. As a resident and former parent of students I hope that you subscribe to our e-Blast so that you can receive updates. As I also said in my letter to the staff and to the community we will be presenting reduction scenarios that would take our tax rate increase down to the 2% level. Nowhere did I say, or suggest as you intimate, that a decision has been made to only ask for a 2% tax rate increase. I'm disappointed that you suggest that. I can say with a fair degree of certainty that a 9.5% tax rate increase, which is what it would take to maintain all current programs and services and all staff positions, would not pass in this community at the present time. As you know, last year, when almost every area school district reduced their faculty and staff Ardsley did not. I said at that time that while the development of the 2009-2010 budget was challenging, I could predict that the development of the 2010-2011 budget would be extremely difficult. Unfortunately, my words have turned out to be prophetic.

As I said in the e-Blast to the community last evening, the Board and the administrative team have the challenging task of developing a budget for 2010-2011 that balances the need and desire to meet the needs of our student body against the ability of the local taxpayer to support our programs in a very challenging and difficult economic climate. I'm sure that you would agree that this a a very difficult task.

As you know I appreciate the many years of service that you have given to this community. I am always available for you to call or email to answer any question about the operation of the school district or any aspect ther