Dear Community Members,
It is a pleasure to be writing this year’s budget newsletter without the weight of COVID hanging over everything. The past two years have presented all of us with unprecedented challenges, and have been extraordinarily burdensome, especially on kids.
The Board of Education has been very sensitive to these challenges, even as we keep an eye on new and emerging difficulties. Chief among these is inflation, and the negative effects it has on every household, business, and school district.
In developing the budget for the 2022-2023 school year, the Board continued to operate under the guiding principle of balancing the needs of our students with what our taxpayers can afford. Additionally, school districts throughout the country have benefited from a one-time infusion of federal funds. This complicated budget development, but will ultimately prove to be beneficial in our budget cycle this year. After careful contemplation, and with an understanding of the corrosive effect inflation is having on our households, the Board has adopted a budget that will result in a 0% tax levy increase for the ‘22/’23 school year.
Our continued adherence to a conservative spending approach, coupled with the increase in federal funding, has allowed us to develop this budget. Furthermore, this budget will result in no reduction in programming for our students.
One thing to note on the ballot this year that will be new to our vote: NYS law allows public libraries to place their own line on a school district’s ballot for voter consideration. You will notice that the Tappan-Spaulding library has chosen to do so on this year’s ballot. This is not in any way connected to or affiliated with the school budget. School districts are required to place the library line on the ballot, and are also required to collect the monies and hand them over to the public library should the referendum pass. (The Tappan-Spaulding Library has provided their rationale on page 3 of the
budget newsletter which can be found here).
I would like to close by thanking all of you in our community for your continued support of our educational mission. The residents of this district have always been unwavering in their commitment to our children, and countless lives are better because of it.
On behalf of the Board of Education, we remain grateful.
Sincerely,
Ryan Dougherty
Superintendent of Schools