ROOSEVELT, N.Y., Aug. 22 — Students returning to school here can expect to find some things they have learned to do without in the five years their district has been under state control: enough textbooks for everyone, correct class assignments, even toilet paper in the bathrooms.
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But after hiring new teachers and adding Advanced Placement classes, the 2,800-student district in Nassau County faces an $8 million debt. It expects to run short of cash for salaries, buses and utilities by October unless the State Legislature authorizes a bailout, without which district administrators say they will have to borrow more or shut the schools.
“It’s like a sword of Damocles; you’re kind of waiting and waiting and holding your breath,” said William J. Brosnan, the state-appointed interim superintendent. He took over in July after the previous superintendent resigned amid criticism over the deficit. “It’s very serious if you can’t pay your bills.”
After decades of mismanagement and weak student performance, in 2002 Roosevelt became the only one of more than 700 school districts in New York ever taken over by the Education Department, which has since poured about $200 million into the district for improvements, including new buildings.
Five years on, the mounting financial crisis has elicited outrage and recriminations from parents, teachers and community leaders over what they see as the state’s failure to turn around a struggling district that is almost entirely black and Hispanic; four out of five students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-rate lunch.
“It’s worse today than when they took it over,” said Frank Scott, co-chairman of the Roosevelt Watch Society, a community group formed in 2005 to scrutinize school operations. “You have parents and taxpayers who are so beaten down they don’t know what to do. They just give up.”
Some critics have called for the district to be consolidated with those of more affluent nearby communities, saying that Roosevelt lacks the tax base to support its own school system. Many residents have long contended that the state takeover was engineered, in large part, to keep their students out of better-off districts.
“New York State has no solution for the school district, so it’s keeping it on life support,” said Alan Singer, an education professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead. “Roosevelt has become the state’s Iraq. It’s a quagmire and it cannot get out.”
The state education commissioner, Richard P. Mills, said it had been difficult to oversee the district’s finances because administrators were often late in providing financial reports and information about purchases.
Mr. Mills said he did not use the state’s special authority to appoint a full-time fiscal administrator for the district until last year because he did not realize the extent of the problems until an audit revealed lax budget practices and spending controls that were sometimes “deliberately overridden.”
“Certainly, the state — my colleagues and I — should have seen the problems earlier,” Mr. Mills said in a phone interview. “When we did see it, it was too late to prevent a deficit.”
The bailout of the Roosevelt schools has stalled in the Legislature, largely over a disagreement about who should pay the debt. In June, the State Senate passed a bill to close the fiscal gap with an advance in state aid that would be paid back over 30 years. But some Assembly members want the $8 million to be carved out of the Education Department’s budget, something the department says is unconstitutional.
The district has improved graduation rates and test scores in recent years despite its financial woes. For instance, 90 percent of fourth graders passed the English test this spring and 89 percent the math test, and the statewide averages are 68 percent in English and 80 percent in math. But among seventh graders, 40 percent passed the English test and 22 percent the math test, and the statewide averages at that level are 58 percent in English and 66 percent in math.
Even as the district has made some academic gains, many students and their parents describe a chaotic learning environment. As the schools prepare to open, the district lacks a high school principal and a permanent superintendent. Parents complain about a badly pockmarked parking lot at the high school. The football team, which won the Long Island championship last year, practices with equipment donated by other districts.
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