Parents Outraged After Proposed Budget Would Cut 100 Staff From Hempstead School District

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- More trouble for a suburban school district that is already under state scrutiny.

The Hempstead School District now wants to slash teaching jobs, even as student enrollment grows by leaps and bounds, CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported.

The district claims it is struggling with an influx of as many as 1,500 students, most arriving from Central America and living with relatives or friends in the district, and now legally entitled to an education.

So with student body numbers on the rise, parents say the need for more teachers is obvious.

But the superintendent, parents say, blindsided them without debate or discussion, announcing her budget may pink slip 100 staff and teachers in the coming year, McLogan reported,

"How could this happen in our school district? When we have a superintendent and everybody underneath her, where are the checks and balances?" said Capri Hynes, with the Hempstead PTA.

Many parents say due to the district's extra student burden, the superintendent should first reach out to state and federal government for more funding. They claim her plan to cut teachers, art, music and more came without asking for input from colleagues and community, McLogan reported.

The superintendent declined to comment. The union said there are better solutions.

"Any cuts means classrooms will have higher enrollment, which hypothetically could have a lot of safety and security issues as we saw a couple of weeks ago," said Hempstead Teachers' Union President Elias Mestizo.

Last month, a Hempstead Middle School teacher was knocked unconscious on campus by an angry parent and her niece, McLogan reported.

And there other sad chapters to hurdle over:

-- The district automatically rounded up failing marks.

-- A summer reading list contained 30 spelling errors.

-- Dismal graduation rates.

-- Decaying buildings.

-- Opaque finances.

Recently though, with a new school board voted in, hope had been blooming on the horizon.

"Good thinking minds can come together, they can change the atmosphere of dysfunction that's going on in the Hempstead School District and make it something that's really going to be positive for these young children that want to succeed. They only need a chance," said Hempstead attorney Frederick Brewington.

The budget vote is less than two weeks away.

The superintendent, Susan Johnson, was not available for an interview, and referred CBS2 to the public relations firm that represents her. Her contract expires next year.