We are at 413 signers on this lovely, Saturday morning!

Thank you soooo much!

Please do all you can to share this petition with friends and family in person and/or on your social media accounts this weekend.

This Tuesday, April 16, 2024 is the date the RCSD school board is slated to vote on the proposed budget. We want them to put The Dual Language Program in the budget! Our goal is to fly past our 500 signature goal, and be moving towards 1,000 by this Tuesday: Can we do it? I think we can!

We want to do everything in our power to urge the school board members to only accept a budget that entirely preserves the excellent, successful, and beloved, Dual Language Program.

What social media accounts do you have? We could really use help promoting this on Instagram, Twitter, and any newer media. (Our organizers seem to be stuck mostly in the old fashioned world of email, FaceBook, and blogging.)

Success is up to you!

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Notes and updates:

Background information is below for those who are following the strategy and intrigue of this school board decision to keep or to kill the Dual Language Program in our four early elementary schools.

Interesting new angle: "Table" the budget approval vote.

If the district is nervous to approve the Dual Language Program due to funding issues only, then the school board could “table” the budget until April 22nd. The school district can use the last legal deadline (Which this year appears to be April 22nd or April 29th?) to wait and see if new funding comes through when the NY State Budget is finally agreed to.

Budget Deadlines at NYSED website

Interesting new information:
The cost to keep the Dual Language Program would be $2 million dollars. 

$2 million dollars seems like a lot. Though, our school budget is over 200 million dollars this year – we are a big district.

Considering that this is an innovative academic program that also supports cultural understanding in our district, spending 1% of the budget in a program in four schools does not seem like a bad idea. It also seems that the district administration should be able to work with adjustments and budget lines to create that 1% allocation needed in this instance.

A drill-down on the interesting information:

Where did we get the $2 million dollar figure? Previously, the school district has been reluctant to admit that there was a clear number on what the program would cost. The district went so far as to tell parents that the district did not have clear budget lines and ways to decipher the cost from last year. Though, the other day an interesting mailing showed up in residences’ mailboxes. The mailing is from a group that has supported successful board candidates in the past. That mailing asserts this 2 million dollar figure as the cost for the Dual Language program this year. (For more information on this intrigue, please feel free to contact Kimberly Wilder and/or look out for explanations on the Riverhead RASi wordpress website.)

Burning the Midnight Oil: Parents and residents working on an alternative budget

Kimberly Wilder is spearheading work on the "Riverhead Schools MD Budget." (Moral Document) Several colleagues and volunteers have been doing research and giving insights. There is a hope that this budget could be done by Monday morning, to submit to the school board as an alternative to the budget created by the new (super fiscally conservative) administrators.

If you want to put your two cents into this budget, or meet with Kimberly on Sunday to work on it, please contact her at kilovesmusic@gmail.com

Summary:

Riverhead RASi and Kimberly are working hard to hold on to the Dual Language Program, an important academic and community-building program. There are other parents – and even other parents groups – planning and talking and organizing. So many people have signed this petition. And, an amazing amount of people – like you! – have shared the petition and/or promoted it with a gift to change dot org.

April 16th is the big night! (Though, the board members might make up their minds before then.) Please help us with this push weekend. And, if you could come to the meeting on Tuesday, April 16th, at 7pm, at the Riverhead High School, we would be so pleased to see you in person!

School Board Meeting April 16th info

Let’s be there to send up a cheer when The Dual Language Program is saved!