The voices library · verbatim · sourced · 2023–2026
Voices: the full library.
Thirty-plus verbatim quotes from the parents, teachers, superintendents, trustees, and 56-year residents living Long Island's enrollment decline — collected for reference and reuse. Every quote links to its source. All are verbatim except one Herald paraphrase, which is marked where it appears. The figures the library writes in its own words, in the closure file and in the context lines beside a speaker, link to the reporting they summarise.
This is the complete quotes archive. The curated selection lives on the Voices page.
Compiled June 10, 2026 · LI Herald · News 12 · Patch · Northport Journal · TBR · Long Island Press
I went on and looked up housing in our school district — there were five houses on the market for under a million. This is a Long Island problem; this is not a Locust Valley problem.
The closure file — how current is "the endgame," really?
Northport–East Northport
(Suffolk) · Aug 2021
Two elementary schools actually closed — Dickinson Avenue and Bellerose Avenue (board vote 5–2, Apr 29, 2021). Stated drivers: enrollment down 10.6% in six years (5,748 → 5,138) and the LIPA settlement stepping payments from $86M to $46M; ~$7M/yr saved. Northport Journal · Patch
Three Village (Suffolk)
voted Jan 2024 · eff. fall 2025
District-wide grade consolidation — 6th into the junior highs, 9th into Ward Melville HS — after enrollment fell ~23% from 2012-13. Buildings stayed open; the structure didn't. TBR News Media
Long Beach (Nassau)
Jan 2025
Nassau's nearest miss — East Elementary studied for closure for a year; a 4,000-signature petition and packed meetings reversed it ("for the foreseeable future"). The fight, not the outcome, is the data point: closure talk has reached Nassau. Patch · News 12
North Shore CSD (Nassau)
2022–2028
The fiscal-cliff companion: the LIPA Glenwood Landing settlement strips >$8M by 2027-28; the homeowner share of the levy has already climbed from ~70% to over 80%. LI Press
Enrollment decline
If you look at the (New York State Education Department) data, you look at the students in senior year, and then you look at the incoming kindergarten, and it's like half. You can really see it going down.
This is a big deal. … That's why last year I started talking about this. We need to pay attention. We need to pay attention to what's going on. Big time.
We have lost 288 children. Teachers' positions have been lost due to attrition and the teachers are the only ones on the chopping block.
For us, the enrollment drop has not been as drastic as what I hear from my colleagues in the surrounding districts, but it has been a trend. The enrollment is going down a little bit.
I think it's really incumbent upon a district to stay focused on providing their programs, not just for today, but for the future.
Budget cuts — inside Rockville Centre's 2026-27 fight
The strength of this district is its teachers, staff and programs that support students. Cutting these is not the best practice. It is actively damaging to students and the community.
It is absurd to think that because of inept financial mismanagement, or construction costs, or health care costs, or because the government didn't give us enough money, or enrollment is down, or house prices are up, that any one of those 100 teachers or their counterparts are losing their jobs.
It's not okay not to have the difficult conversations. We're parents, we're taxpayers, and you need to be better stewards of our money.
Roxanne Rizzi · Parent/resident, Rockville Centre (told the board Riverside runs ~$15K more per student at current enrollment)
LI Herald · Feb 13, 2026 Special education is not optional. These students are not budget lines to be trimmed. They are children entitled to services.
Why are we not reducing the amount of administrators? They get paid a lot and we have a surplus. We do not need three curriculum administrators right now. Please consider not to let go of the teacher assistants.
The question is, with a $3.2 million gap, how do we go about closing that gap and still providing the best possible programs for our students? … We're currently higher staffed in terms of teachers than about 75 percent of the districts in the county.
We are not aligning resources. We are stretching them beyond the point of effectiveness, and we are not being fully transparent about the impact of these decisions.
We should be looking at how we can bring those students in-district. We would eliminate paying other districts for those children, we would eliminate transporting those children to another district, which is over a million dollars in the budget.
One of the tightest budgets we have ever put together.
The closure fight — Long Beach, January 2025
What we just saw was a lot of things coming, while my community is facing a closure of a school. It is almost a slap in the face to this community.
I listened to the tremendous advocacy from the community. We represent your needs. We have your best interests.
The benefits of consolidating did not outweigh the risks and the concerns that we're faced with.
We're a $155 million district. I'm not so sure it's wise to pour money into a building that's 98 years old.
Taxes, trust & the electorate
It's my 56th year of going to budget hearings. And this is a great turnout, but it's probably one of the worst budget situations that I've seen in all those years. … You lost the confidence of the community as shepherds and stewards of our money.
You have my full support and I will be voting yes on whatever budget comes down.
Barry Hochhauser · Resident, Rockville Centre — calling the schools a cornerstone of property values
LI Herald · Feb 13, 2026 The way that our community is, I think that 2.27 is too high for us, and I am not sure that the community would support that number.
Cheryl May · BOE Vice President, Hewlett-Woodmere — arguing the levy itself had hit voters' ceiling
LI Herald · Mar 21, 2025 Long Islanders, it's like the weather. They complain about the taxes but they generally support school districts. … School districts are essential elements of community identity on Long Island.
Michael Cohen · Former Brentwood superintendent (school taxes run 67–70% of LI property-tax bills)
News 12 · May 19, 2026 What the budget fight did to the board — May 19, 2026
I didn't approach this thinking, like, 'Yeah, I really want to be on the school board.' I came to this thinking I want to just participate as a parent and understand what's going on so I can also tell my friends what's going on.
Mary Beth Joyce · Parent of four; elected trustee May 19, 2026 (with Christa Dorrego, unseating an incumbent as the budget passed 1,915–1,195)
LI Herald · May 1, 2026 · results Families are worried about reduced programming. There are questions about the student experience. … I'm committed to restoring the trust, to open dialogue, steady and accountable governance.
The only decision that's been made is we're going to hold another vote on June 16. We have come to no conclusion as to whether we will try to present the same budget or modify it.
Kristen Turnow · Superintendent, Locust Valley — after Nassau's only 2026-27 budget defeat (850–765)
LI Herald · May 22, 2026 Use & provenance: every quote above is verbatim from the linked source (one Herald paraphrase is marked as such). Full library with theme tags, overflow quotes, and the closure-file detail: docs/findings/voices.md in the project repo. Newsday's enrollment series is paywalled; its data points appear here only where republished. Compiled for the Rockville Centre housing×schools briefing — the deck.