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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Pine Bush board reviews budget numbers
Continued from page 1
cabling in five buildings. The board formally gave Hicks
the go-ahead to begin the work, starting with a letter of
intent to the state Education Department. Funding for
the Smart Schools Bond Act was approved by voter referendum in November 2014. The money won’t be spent
without the public’s say-so: Hicks will create a preliminary investment plan, which will be posted on the district
website for a month followed by a public hearing.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Michael
Pacella reviewed budget numbers with the board. The
full preliminary budget will be presented at the next
board meeting at 7 p.m. April 12 at the high school. The
district is allowed to increase the tax levy by no more than
0.038 percent, or $55,888,918. State aid numbers weren’t
known at the March 29 meeting, but were released a few
days later: Pine Bush is expected to receive $54,404,673 in
aid, which would help keep the tax levy hike either at or
below the cap.
Pine Bush expects savings through teacher retirement, but the exact amount isn’t yet known, Pacella
explained. New budget items for next year include adding modified lacrosse teams, at a cost of $15,000; one
additional extra-curricular club at each of the middle
schools and at the high school, for $6,340; an “English for
New Learners” teacher at $86,600; increasing a school
psychologist position from half to full-time, at $39,843; a
$29,959 increase in BOCES costs; and a full-day, weeklong
Human Rights Summer Academy for middle-schoolers,
available to 50 students from Circleville and Crispell
Middle Schools, to be held at Circleville Middle School, at
$5,000.
Pacella also presented his thoughts on increasing
rental costs for groups to use school facilities during offhours. A PowerPoint slide show compared Pine Bush’s
charges with other districts’: for example, Pine Bush
charges $1.50 to $2 per hour for use of a classroom, while
other districts charge as much as $35 an hour. Pine Bush
charges $6 to $8 per hour for use of its pools; other districts’ charges are as high as $125 an hour. The board
will look into this further and may consider revising its
charges for the 2016-17 school year.
Superintendent Joan Carbone proposed converting
two of the district’s remain