By Chris English
SHARON SPRINGS — An $11.48 million school budget with a three percent property tax levy increase is what Sharon Springs residents will be voting on May 20.
The school board put that in place at its Monday, April 7 meeting when it unanimously adopted a 2025-26 budget resolution with those numbers. It's the highest tax hike in several years, said Superintendent Thomas Yorke, adding that he didn't know exactly how many years it's been since an increase of that type.
"We don't like to raise taxes at all," he said. Yorke continued, however, that periodic increases in this type of range are necessary to stabilize the tax rate and ensure taxpayers are not getting hit with even larger hikes in any one year.
He said the 2025-26 proposed budget does not use any of the district's fund balance, or surplus, because a rather large amount of fund balance was used in this year's school budget. Yorke didn't have the amount of where the fund balance stood available at Monday night's meeting.
The board, Yorke and other administrators have been able to close a budget deficit that stood at $500,000 a few weeks ago and present a balanced budget to voters on May 20. The deficit was closed largely by the layoffs of three teachers and one psychologist, a move the board approved at its March 24 meeting. One of the teaching positions and the psychologist position were half time.
"That was the most difficult part of this budget, the positions that were lost," Yorke said after Monday night's meeting. "Now we continue with less staff while maintaining all the programs we offered previously."
One of the main problems in recent years of trying to match revenue with expenses is foundational state aid that doesn't keep up with rising costs, Yorke said. He explained that the district is expecting about a 2 percent increase in that foundational state aid for 2025-26 but that most district expenses are going up more than 2 percent.
In other actions from the April 7 meeting, the board approved the $15.67 million Capital Region BOCES budget for 2025-26 and also Sharon Springs' $23,759 share of that budget. There are 24 school districts around the Capital District that participate in this BOCES, with Sharon Springs being one of the smallest, Yorke explained.
The board also approved a slate of four candidates for that BOCES School Board. There are four seats open and four candidates running, school board member Christine Cornwell said.
Also approved was the addition of 20 out-of-district students for 2025-26 ranging from grades 1 to 12. Yorke explained that it's the Sharon Springs policy to allow students who live outside the district to attend Sharon Springs CSD at no tuition so long as certain conditions are met.
In personnel moves at the end of the meeting, the board approved Brad Erkson as a bus driver in training and Kelsey Girard as a new K-12 physical education teacher effective on Sept. 1. She is replacing a PE teacher who is retiring after 35 years of service, Yorke said.
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