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| May 17, 2025 |
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General News: School Board Adopts Budget
By Charlie B. Scirbona
With a vote of eight ayes and one abstention the Cornwall Board of Education settled on a proposed 5.32 percent tax levy increase for the 2011-2012 school budget on Tuesday.
The board spent over an hour discussing any possible alternatives that could bring the tax levy down any further. Several board members had pushed to bring the levy under five percent, however, all but one, Barbara Manzari, said they could live with the figure passed Tuesday.
“I had originally wanted to get the tax levy below 5.32 percent,” said board member Charles Frankel. “But I see that the effect of going less than five percent is just too much.”
Language Course, Art, Band and Business Teachers Restored
In past meetings the board had entertained the possibility of going lower than a tax levy in the 5 percent range. To get there would have required eliminating the seventh-grade foreign language course, one art teacher in the high school, one business teacher and the fourth grade band teacher.
The remaining cuts included in the budget are substantial. The district has proposed cutting a section from kindergarten and fifth grade as well as changing the two full-time computer teacher positions in the elementary school to teaching assistant positions, essentially ending computer classes in the elementary school.
The board also eliminated the position of the high school nurse-teacher, opting to replace it with that of a registered nurse. The elementary schools will lose all after-school activities.
Final Budget Totals $58.6 Million
The final budget that tax payers will vote on in May is $58,641,919. This is $930,677 less than the $59,572,596 budget unveiled back in February.
The board did manage to find one last minute change, which will restore most of the proposed cuts to the modified sports program. Board member David Moretto proposed budgeting three fewer seats for the Orange-Ulster BOCES Career and Technical Education Center, saving just over $28,000. The money would be used to restore some funding to the modified sports program and the assistant coaching positions.
This is a calculated risk by the board. Board president Larry Berger reminded his fellow members that reducing BOCES seats from 70 to 67 funded seats will only work if there are fewer or exactly 67 students who want to attend the career and technical program. If more students want to attend, the district will have to make up the difference.
“We’ve done this in the past and it worked. Let’s role the dice again.” said Moretto.
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