Voters in Garrison District Getting Second Chance at Budget
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Residents in the Garrison School District will be getting a second crack at approving a budget for the 2022-23 school year.
Following the May 17 defeat of the $12.36 spending plan when 30 percent of eligible voters finished at a standstill (314 for and 314 against), the Board of Education decided on May 25 to put up a revised budget on June 21.
The first budget exceeded the state’s mandated 2.2 percent tax cap with a 9.18 tax hike. The new budget includes a 6.6 percent tax increase and must be approved by at least 60 percent of voters to pass.
Also on the ballot is a proposal for Garrison to enter into a four-year agreement with the Haldane School District for high school tuition costs that would save Garrison more than $107,000. Garrison students have the option of either attending Haldane High School or O’Neill High School in Highland Falls.
Haldane Superintendent of Schools Phil Benante recently addressed the proposed arrangement.
“As Garrison continues to develop another budget to present to their community for vote later in June, we have been asked to reevaluate our tuition rate structure for students who currently attend Haldane and those who are scheduled to attend our high school next year. The Haldane Board of Education and I have extensively discussed this matter,” Benante stated.
“First and foremost, we consider all students who attend Haldane to be our students. We are committed to ensuring that all students who have committed to Haldane have an uninterrupted educational experience and have informed Garrison that we will honor a tuition structure that allows these students to attend Haldane High School. We also stand behind the value of the Haldane experience and our responsibility to the taxpayers of our community. We will seek to work with Garrison to establish a tuition rate structure that reflects the commitment that our residents have made to support our schools,” Benante added.
On May 17, voters in Garrison okayed a similar agreement with the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery School District.
To reduce the proposed tax hike, the Garrison Board of Education eliminated a part-time music teacher ($48,865), a Land to Learn Program ($20,000), and a startup lunch program ($10,000), and reduced a field trip budget by $15,000.
If voters reject the budget again on June 21, an additional $642,355 would have to be cut. That would result in the loss of arts programs (band, chorus and theater), bus transportation within two miles of the school, one elementary teacher, a school psychologist, the director of technology, the environmental science teacher, and a dialectical behavior therapist.
Residents will have an opportunity before the vote to comment on the revised budget at a June 14 public hearing at 7 p.m. Voting on June 21 will take place between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/