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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: School Budget Vote on Tuesday
May 17, 2010
On Tuesday, May 18, voters in the Cornwall Central School District will have the opportunity to vote on the 2010-11 school budget. This year’s proposed budget is $57.4 million. Voters are also asked to elect three members of the board of education from a field of five candidates (read the candidates’ statements here).
Cost Cutting in the Proposed Budget
The budget reflects a drop in state aid of $1.3 million and cost reductions that were achieved by eliminating two first-grade teaching assistants, one elementary school librarian, one computer teacher and one computer lab assistant, along with one special education teacher and one part-time Spanish teacher. The Arts in Education program and the Sands Ring program were also cut from the curriculum.
In addition, the district would reduce services in several areas, including research, planning and evaluation, athletic supplies and awards, conferences and workshops, modified sports and clubs and extracurricular activities.
The proposed budget, if adopted, will increase the tax levy by 3.975% for Cornwall property owners and by 5.3% for Woodbury property owners while reducing it by 5.55% for New Windsor property owners in the Cornwall school district.
Contingency Budget Would Cut More Teachers, Services
If voters reject the proposed budget on Tuesday, the school district will automatically adopt a contingency budget of $55.7 million, $1.7 million less than the proposed budget. Under the contingency budget, kindergarten would be reduced to a half-day program and most assistant varsity coaches and all junior varsity and modified sports would be eliminated. Five teaching positions would also be done away with, including a music teacher, a physical education teacher, a business teacher and a fifth-grade and a sixth-grade teacher. Three library clerks, two nurse teachers and an assistant principal position would also be eliminated under the contingency budget.
The school district points out that the difference between the two budgets for taxpayers would be $18 a month, or $216 a year, for a homeowner whose home has an estimated market value of $250,000 and $28.92 a month, or $347 a year, for a homeowner whose home has an estimated value of $400,000.
The voting will take place at the Cornwall Central Middle School on Main Street from 6 am to 9 pm.
Comments:
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I have not been following these issues, but I am wondering why the New Windsor property owners would have a 5.55% reduction - while everyone else has a tax increase?
posted by Linda Carella on 05/17/10 at 6:08 PM
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As a New Windsor resident, Linda, I asked the same thing. Mr. Harvey Sotland kindly provided this reply. The Board had noted at at least one mtg that New Windsor's rates had been higher than Cornwall's and Woodbury's in the past, demonstrating the fluctuation that can occur:
The rationale behind the increase or decrease in tax rates between different municipalities within the same school district is tied directly to both the taxable assessments and equalization rates of each municipality. While tax rate swings may occur from year to year, the equalization rates actually serve to keep things equitable between different municipalities within both the same school district and the state as a whole. For a detailed understanding of how equalization rates work, please see: http://www.orps.state.ny.us/pamphlet/under_eqrates.htm.
posted by Ross and Marianne Miller on 05/18/10 at 9:26 PM
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Ross - thank you for providing an answer - I will check out the website.
posted by Linda Carella on 05/18/10 at 9:51 PM
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