In record numbers, voters across the state turned out the "yes" vote May 15, approving more than 95 percent of school budgets.

"New Yorkers understand that investing in education and children is the right direction for our state," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "With property taxes less of an issue this year, voters turned out in force to make a wise investment in children and property values, which are closely linked to good public schools."

Iannuzzi attributed part of the record budget passage to the state's historic $1.8 billion investment in education.

School budget voting history

*First budget vote

• Highest pass rate: 95.3 percent in 2007
• Lowest pass rate: 66.3 percent in 1978

"Record increases in state aid clearly made a difference," Iannuzzi said. "Many school boards were able to maintain and strengthen the academic programs students need while holding down tax increases."

Of the 648 school spending plans gaining public approval, NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin noted several were in areas that have had difficulties in the past, including Long Island and the Hudson Valley. "Teachers and parents, working as partners with others in their communities, really got the job done this year," Lubin said.

Voters rejected school budgets in 32 districts, which now have three options: resubmit the same budget for a second vote; offer voters an amended budget; or adopt a contingency budget.

If a spending plan is defeated a second time, a district automatically goes on a contingency plan, which this year caps spending increases at 3.84 percent.

In districts that where budgets failed, Tuesday, June 19, is the statewide date for re-voting.

Success at the polls

In the weeks before May 15, thousands of NYSUT members handed out leaflets, staffed phone banks, planted lawn signs and worked with parents and community leaders to pass local budgets.

The statewide union encouraged support for school budgets with a $1 million, statewide television advertising campaign.

Electing pro-education school board members was equally successful for some NYSUT locals.

In the Nassau County community of East Meadow, where the local union is locked in a protracted contract battle with a hostile district, voters not only approved a $157 million budget, they elected several union-backed candidates to the board.

"The East Meadow community has sent a strong message that they value education and respect the important role teachers and staff play in providing a quality education," said John Gallagher, president of the East Meadow Teachers Association.

In the Wappingers school district in Dutchess County, where several bargaining units are involved in difficult contract negotiations, union members banded together to overcome parent frustration and potential negative votes as a result of the district's poorly planned busing changes.

The budget passed and three union-backed candidates, including a former school bus driver, won election to the school board.

"It's good when union hands come together working for the same cause," said Pasquale Delli Carpini, president of the Wappingers Congress of Teachers.

While results statewide were overhelmingly positive, there were several upsets.

For the second consecutive year, Albany voters rejected the district's spending plan. The president of the Albany Public School Teachers Association, Bill Ritchie, attributed the budget's failure to a number of issues, including a controversial citywide reassessment and the proliferation of publicly funded, privately operated charter schools.

"The citizens of Albany are funding two school systems: our public schools and a private charter school system over which they have no control," Ritchie said. "Some voters may have had the wrong impression that by rejecting the budget they were rejecting funding for charter schools."

Next year, Ritchie said, Albany schools will have to send $22 million in payments to the city's experimental schools and will receive only $2.5 million in "transition aid" to help offset the costs.

Albany voters also may have been confused due to problems with the calculation of the contingency budget. A new law now allows districts to deduct the increase in charter school payments from their contingency budget maximum, but that was not included on the State Education Department's calculation form.

As a result, a voter information card sent to taxpayers erroneously said a contingency budget would be $1.37 million less than the proposed budget.

Ithaca voters rejected their district's $91 million school budget. The plan would have increased spending 5.5 percent over last year and increased taxes just over 4 percent.

"We'll take an active part in communicating with the board of education to help in their revision of the budget so we can ensure its success," said Ithaca TA President Susan Mittler.

Voters in the state-run Roosevelt district on Long Island rejected a budget that would have cut two dozen teaching positions and increased taxes 7.5 percent.

Many districts cited low voter turnout as a possible cause for budget defeats.

Underscoring the importance of every single vote, several budgets failed by the slimmest of margins, including two in Suffolk County.

In the tiny Fire Island district, the budget was defeated by seven votes. In Brentwood, the budget went down by a single vote.

— Clarisse Butler Banks