After serving on our school board for 7 years and another 14 years of service on the Orange/ Ulster BOCES Board, its my opinion that all of the new money should be returned to the tax payer. If we want to pass budgets, we must be fair to the tax payer. If we found a short fall of funds the tax payer would be asked to pay more. When we get more than expected from the State or find extra funds we should always return all of it to the tax payers.

I agree with you wholeheartedly Mr. DiCarraado and yes, if there were a shortfall of money the board would surely ask us taxpayers to pay more. I cannot believe that the school board is even considering not returning we the taxpayers money back too us by lowering the projected tax levy. I as a retired senior citizen and many others like me on fixed incomes are being taxed out of this town. With the outrage that is going on in Washington with our representatives spending this country into the ground and the same thing happening in Albany the buck has to stop somewhere. Everyone knows if we don't stop the uncontrolled spending, America as we know it is doomed. We the taxpayer can't take much more. Stop spending this "new found money" and return it to the taxpayer and lower our taxes. I received a fine education when I was growing up without all the frills this school system has ie; TA's for instance, and my parents had to pay for many many club activities and trips that I took. Why can't that be done now? If you want all these extra frills then the individuals who want to enjoy them should pay for them. Not us taxpayers!!

Who gets to decide what is a frill? Mr. Powell says kindergarten teaching assistants. Others say the music program, which is perennially threatened by the ax. What about the arts? Dance (which is not even offered at Cornwall)? To students who hope to have careers in the arts--and there are many in this year's senior class alone, including one of my own children--music and the arts are no more frills than science and mathematics are to a future engineer. This taxpayer could do without the football team and the cheerleaders, surely an anachronism in the twenty-first century. To each is own, however. It is the voting community that gets to decide what is worth paying for, and the majority of voters in this community seem to be willing to pay for "all the frills this school system has."

I also have to point out that parents do in fact pay for many extras, some of which even I consider to be frills. I've ponied up plenty of money over the years for field trips, T-shirts for the drama club and the track and XC teams, Key Club dues, AP exams, and SUNY college in the high school classes, just to name a few.

Carlotta,

I agree with everything in your post. I was a "jock" in H.S. but what really benefits the student to improve themselves intellectually?
I'm not advocating getting rid of sports because they do play a huge part on a childs development also. Music though helps immensely with educational development. The BoE handled the matter in a very professional matter.

It was my first time attending a BoE meeting. I wish I could attend more but circumstances don't permit it. It does make me feel good we have such excellant people serving on the board. There were some excellant comments by parents. One lady in particular gave great reasons to keep the music program. I can't help but believe it was you. I believe most agree with your post. Two things I have always voted for is the School budget and Library budget. If we don't have an educated youth we all lose. Best