Wallkill

The Wallkill Central School District’s 2018-2019 budget passed by a resounding 441 to 133 margin on Tuesday, as taxpayers approved the proposed $75,098,079 spending plan. The approved budget includes a 2.74 percent tax levy increase, which is right at the state-mandated tax cap limit. In the Board of Education balloting, board incumbent Donna Crowley (433 votes), School Board Vice President Tom Frisbie (405 votes), and incumbent Steve Missale (393 votes) all earned new three-year terms on the council. Former board member Tom McCullough (360 votes) came in fourth in the voting, and edged out challenger David Bartolone (312 votes) for the fourth open seat on the board, which comes with a two-year term. Voters also approved a proposition in the May 15 election to establish a Facilities Capital Reserve Fund, which will allow the district to fund future capital projects for Wallkill facilities without having to borrow money. Voters backed the measure by a 423 to 142 margin.

- Ted Remsnyder

Highland, Marlboro Approve School Budgets

On Tuesday voters in Marlborough and Highland went to the polls to vote on their respective school budgets for the 2018-19 school year. In Marlborough voters approved a budget of $56,888,880 for next year by a vote of 500 to 269. Three won seats on the School Board with 475 votes for Frank Milazzo; 521 votes for John Marro and 453 votes for Tony Perugino. JoAnn Reed lost her seat on the board with 424 votes. In Highland, three won seats on the School board, Camille Adoma with 582 votes, Mike Bakatsias with 603 votes and Ed Meisel with 628 votes. Voters approved their $45,280,769 budget by a vote of 595 to 301 In addition, voters approved an $8 million Capital project for infrastructure and safety upgrades by 583 to 308. Voters also said yes to a bus proposition of $588,000 by a vote of 589 to 305. This is for three, 65 passenger buses; two 29/30 seat passenger vans; one wheel chair van and one 7 passenger suburban. This proposition will generate nearly 60% in aid to the district to help defray the costs.

- Mark Reynolds

Newburgh

Voters approve $275M school budget Howard, Burton, Santiago, Levinstein elected to Newburgh School Board Voters in the Newburgh Enlarged City School District approved a $275-million school budget Tuesday. Residents also backed a more than $5-million budget for the Newburgh Free Library. Unofficial results arrived late Tuesday night, reporting Ramona Burton was newly elected to the Newburgh Board of Education with 776 votes. Sylvia Santiago was also elected to the board with 650 votes. Incumbent board member Philip Howard was welcomed to a third term with 882 votes cast. Mark Levinstein came in fourth, winning 553 votes. He will serve out the remainder of the term left by former board member Domenic Tebano, who resigned earlier this year. Carrie Robinson and Shoy Colbourne drew 473 and 266 votes, respectively. Voters approved several propositions, including a plan to expand busing for school district students living within city limits. Voters passed a separate proposition to allow the school district to sell the Washington Street School building at 121 Washington Street. Residents also voted to authorize the district to set up a capital reserve fund in which to place a maximum of $10 million to pay for a proposed project to rebuild and renovate schools throughout the district.

Another proposition passed to okay the Cold War Veterans’ Exemption at the basic tax exemption level of 10 percent of assessed value of a property, not to exceed $8,000 for the 2019-2020 school year.

- SHANTAL RILEY

Valley Central

After weeks of debate and discussion regarding the 2018-2018 Valley Central budget, the public rendered their verdict on the proposed spending plan during Tuesday’s election and taxpayers rejected the budget by a 987 to 848 margin, according to the district’s preliminary results. The $104,203,711 budget included a 4.09 percent tax levy increase, right below the state-mandated 4.26 percent tax levy limit. The $2,956,385 spending increase over the 2017-2018 plan represented a 2.92 percent increase over last year’s budget. With the proposed budget rebuffed by the public, state law mandates that the school board can either put the same budget (or a modified version) up for another vote, or immediately adopt a contingent budget. If the district were to adopt a contingent budget for 2018-19, Valley Central would have to cut $2,417,985 from the proposed budget. The next regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting will be held on May 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the Administration Building. “I want to extend my thanks to all the community members who exercised their right to vote today,” Valley Central Superintendent John Xanthis declared in a statement. “During this budget planning process, our team worked diligently to balance students’ needs and taxpayers’ impact. The administration will meet with the Board of Education in the coming days to discuss our next steps. Please keep an eye on our website for updates as this process unfolds.” Board of Education incumbents Sonia Lewis (1,034) and Melvin Wesenberg (1,016 votes) were each re-elected to three-year terms on the council on Tuesday, while write-in candidate Don Berger fell short with 334 votes. The district’s downed budget included funding for new programs and positions, including the addition of a Director of Curriculum - ALC Principal at Maybrook, a psychologist at the middle school, Science 21 training for grades K-2 and the expansion of the district’s one-to-one Google Chromebook tablet initiative to the ninth-grade class. When the proposed budget was passed by the Board of Education in April by a 5-2 margin, the council eliminated the proposed addition of an Instructional Technology Teacher that the administration included in its original draft of the budget, saving $100,563 by cutting the post. “We felt that for one year we could probably hold off on that, and we’re also trying to show the public that it’s just not carte blanche,” Xanthis said prior to the vote. “We do look at every position and we try to add where we can. For that one we felt that we could hold off for a year.” During the board’s final meeting before the budget vote on May 7, public frustration with the proposed budget was evident, as several taxpayers voiced their displeasure with the plan. Local resident William Schimpf was also dissatisfied with the interactions he’d had with the board while debating the budget this spring. “During the past month, members of the public, taxpayers alike have, quite sincerely and with valid concerns, have addressed this august body regarding your proposed 2018-2019 budget,” Schimpf said to the board. “In the time that has passed, instead of properly utilizing that time to truly listen to public concerns, you have apparently chosen to become somewhat defensive to our concerns and utilized every mechanism available to eliminate any public input at all. When I formerly asked a simple question regarding an amount set aside for insurance, I was told by a board member to ‘Keep quiet and that we couldn’t speak during the presentation and that is the way we do business around here.’ This immediately set a tone for this person of just sending your tax money and shut up, and we know what’s best for you. Not nice. Imagine how that was received by a veteran of 22 years in the service of our country? Imagine that for a moment.” Resident Donald Berger, who ran for a seat on the school board this week as a write-in candidate, asked the board during the public comment section of the meeting why they had to approach the tax cap in the proposed budget, asking them if they would budget their households that way. “What gives you the right to do that here to the taxpayers of this community?” Berger asked. “I don’t get it. I don’t understand it.” The candidate said he would be voting against the proposed spending plan. “The other thing that troubles me is that I always hear ‘What’s best for the kids,’” Berger continued. “Do you think parents know what’s best for their children? I would think so, right? What makes you think that you know what’s best for the kids, other than the parents? I’m against this budget. It’s just too much. It’s too much money, and it tells me this board did very little to see what could be reduced, rather than tax us to the limit.” One concern that was raised multiple times throughout the budget process by residents was the financial burden the tax increase would have on senior citizens living on a fixed income, a concern that Xanthis said was valid. “We understand the frustration, but the problem is something has to change with New York State with the taxes for people on fixed incomes,” he explained. “Maybe they should go back to a progressive tax or when you become 70 years old your taxes get cut in half or it never gets increased. There’s got to be some relief for the seniors. But the place where they’re going to get relief is from the state. We have to run budgets, and after we pay our bills we have very little discretionary money. One of the things that was mentioned tonight (from the public) was that we didn’t put anything in for safety, but we have technology spending that we’re waiting on the state for. But the second thing we put in was this program that we’re going to utilize at the high school with a freshman seminar, where every ninth-grader will go through a program and talk about what’s going on in the world about drugs, violence and mental health. It’s all of the things that affect the kids’ lives, and we’re trying to do that for every ninth-grader so they have more awareness, which is really the key for that.” Xanthis said that the district was prudent about adding staff, and targeted the new positions for areas of need. “The psychologist that we added at the middle school, that’s so we have more personnel to see kids that are having problems,” he said prior to the balloting. “We don’t have enough and that was one of the requests. We didn’t put things in the budget per se for more security, but we are one of the only districts with School Resource Officers in our high school and our middle school, and we’re going to continue with that. But we put money into personnel that we believe will help address those needs.”

- Ted Remsnyder