Vol. 36, No. 21 3 WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2018
3
ONE DOLLAR
The Start of
Something
Big Meet the
Unified
Team
Page 25 Page 38
w w w .W a l l k i l l V a l l e y T i m e s . n e t
VC considers 2nd budget vote
By TED REMSNYDER
Six days after Valley Central taxpayers
rejected the school district’s proposed
2018-2019 budget, the district went back to
the drawing board during its meeting on
Monday night at Berea Elementary, as the
council explored its options in advance of
a second budget vote. After the proposed
$104,203,711 budget was struck down by
voters on May 15 by a 987 to 849 margin,
the board is facing three options going
forward - to put the original budget up for
a second vote, to present the public with
a modified budget to vote on or to adopt a
contingent budget featuring drastic cuts.
During the May 21 session, no board
members expressed support for the
idea of putting the original budget up
for a second vote or the possibility of
adopting a contingent spending plan. The
board spent the meeting debating the
administration’s recommended cuts to the
budget, but the night ended without the
board reaching a consensus on a modified
budget to present to taxpayers, and a
special board meeting was scheduled for
May 29 to continue the budget discussions.
Continued on page 4
G olden S hovel G roundbreaking
Jaspreet Gill
Staff and students of Montgomery Elementary were joined by representatives from Dannon and ShopRite recently for their “Golden Shovel
Groundbreaking” event to celebrate their $25,000 Project Fit America grant. Story on page 20.
PB budget OK’d;
Grassele and
Tompkins elected
By JASPREET GILL
[email protected]
Amid last week’s extreme weather
which caused several road closures in
the Wallkill Valley region, the Pine Bush
school district managed to get their votes
in on time.
Kristin Grassele and Ross Tompkins
were elected to the school board, pulling
in 708 votes and 577 votes, respectively.
They take the place of Roseanne Sullivan
and Peter Agro, who retired from the
school board this year.
Residents voted yes on the $116,178,996
2018-2019 budget with a 897-256 margin.
The budget is an increase of 1.69% from
last year’s budget and includes a 2.15%
property tax increase and 0.77% state
aid increase. The budget also includes a
significant security increase, where all
schools will have armed security present.
The capital reserve was voted in favor
of with 859 votes. Money the school
currently has will be allocated to this
fund to help offset the cost of the district’s
upcoming capital improvement project.
Residents voted in favor of a $7 million
energy project with a 913-230 margin.
Voter approval increases state aid on the
project by 10%.
However, not all residents were able to
travel to all four voting destinations due
to last week’s storm. Voting was briefly
put on hold at the high school, where
voters waited for more than an hour to
cast their ballots.
Some people complained that the
voting should be put on a pause and
resume when roads were reopened the
next day. But by state law, school board
and budget elections must be held on the
third Tuesday in May except in Buffalo,
New York City, Rochester, Syracuse and
Yonkers.
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL