The Pine Bush School District may have adopted its 2024-2025 budget on April 18, but what do residents think? Joe Lenz, assistant superintendent to the district’s business office, provided a brief overview of the budget during Shawangunk’s May 2 board meeting and encouraged everyone to submit their votes.

The school district’s upcoming budget totaled $141,504,647, a $5.875 increase from last year’s, with a tax levy increase of 2.96% and a $138 annual increase to the average household’s school taxes. Lenz asserted that he and the school board were happy with the outcome but did face some snags due to the state delaying its budget approval.

“We’re excited with regards to where we finally landed. It was not without difficulty, certainly with the state budget being extremely delayed,” he said. “In fact, we adopted our budget before the state came out with theirs.”

Lenz assured that the school district would maintain all of its academic, athletic, and club programs, and the elementary enrollment would remain stable. He noted that the board removed four positions from the budget but added three more to its special education department.

“That’s just a reallocation occurring because of the needs of our students,” Lenz said. “Our special education director made a request for two psychologists and a behavioral assistant because of the needs that we’re receiving, seeing other students coming into our district.”

Lenz then urged all residents to vote for the school budget later this month, stressing the district’s historically low voter turnout.

“Unfortunately at Pine Bush, we only see 5% of our population actually voting. So we have 1,200 people voting, but we could have 20,800 people voting,” he said. “It’s unfortunate how many people choose to not take advantage of their right to vote.”

The budget vote will take place on Tuesday, May 21 between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. at two polling locations. Residents from Gardiner, Shawangunk, Crawford, and Montgomery will vote in Pine Bush High School at 118 Route 302, while residents from Mount Hope, Wallkill, and Mamakating will vote in Circleville Elementary School at 2000 Route 302.

Additionally, voters can choose from six candidates to fill two, three-year terms on the school board. The candidates include Peter Agro, Shauna Best, Lisa Dyer, Phillip Salinardi, Ross Tompkins, and Matthew Watkins.