Sullivan West’s budget vote explained

BY SARAH GOLDMAN

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — June 3 marks the dawning of a new budget era for Sullivan West and the vote is broken down into three sections.

Proposition One deals with the budget in total, either approving or denying the proposed $26 million budget for the 2003-2004 school year. The $26,829,103 proposed school budget is a 6.26 percent increase over last year’s expenditures. Since the budget difficulties in New York State have trickled down to the local level, the state aid for the budget is significantly less than expected. To make up for this difference, the new tax rate for the district is 8.18 percent.

Some of the major issues include the addition of the new high school, a 35 to 40 percent increase of insurance, teacher cuts and reorganization of departments.

In an effort to cut down on costs, the school has cut 10.5 teachers, seven teacher’s aid positions, three teacher’s assistants, and the assistant superintendent position has been phased out. The guidance department has been restructured, and the district will rely on their own guidance staff to provide more counseling services. No extracurricular activities have been cut from next year’s schedule.

Proposition Two is for the transportation of students to and from school. It deals with the merging of three school transportation routes, Narrowsburg, Delaware Valley and Jeffersonville-Youngsville, into one route. The proposition calls for students Kindergarten through sixth grade within one half mile, and students in grades seven to 12 within one mile, to walk to school. The proposition also states that any student within the Sullivan West district will be transported to school. Should this proposition not pass, the alternate transportation limitations will be K-6 students within two miles and 7-12 students within three miles will walk to school.

Proposition Three is in reference to the five-year transportation contract with First Student. It calls for the five-year contract with First Student for all morning and evening transportation. The district has saved money by contracting out transportation in that health benefits for the drivers and maintenance for the buses will be covered by the contracted company.

By signing a five-year contract with this company, the district is able to keep a fixed rate of a 2.5 percent increase per year for the entire five years with the company. Should the proposition not pass, the board can chose to contract the company on a year to year basis, but the rates will not be fixed and dependent upon the consumer price index.