Sullivan West to ask for 4.9 percent tax increase

Four propositions on the ballot

By FRITZ MAYER

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — Sullivan West voters will decide on May 20 whether to accept a budget of $33.317 million for the 2008-09 school year, virtually unchanged from the previous year’s figure. However, the school tax levy will be increased by about 4.9 percent over last year.

Superintendent of Sullivan West Central School District Dr. Kenneth Hilton explained that the process of forming the budget is changing to get away from the practice of using the fund balance to help pay for school spending. Hilton, who talked with reporters on April 29 in his office at the Jeffersonville Elementary School, said that the practice has led to a yo-yo effect in the past, which resulted in a 5.8 percent tax decrease last year. In the 2005-06 school year, it created a 16.6 percent increase, along with a layoff of 41 employees.

He said that kind of volatility is “no good for the school, and no good for the community.”

Even though the dollar amount for the budget is the same as last year, there are enough excess funds to allow the school board to add new elements next year. One program is summer school classes for grades seven and eight, which would be added to those instituted last year for students in kindergarten through grade six. Hilton said the summer courses help lower the number of students who are held back each year. The district will also pay for summer courses that are available to high school students at Sullivan County Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and the school will provide transportation to the facility in Liberty. In the past, student’s families have been responsible for paying these costs.

Also, two new faculty positions will be created. One is an assistant principal for student services for grades seven through 12. This person will be responsible, among other things, for helping to increase the graduation rate at the school.

The other position is a district data management specialist who will be responsible for, among other things, compiling the data required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Also in the proposed budget, driver’s education courses will be returned to the high school, after being switched to BOCES three years ago.

Richard Sandler, president of the school board, who was also at the meeting, said there was broad agreement among board members that this was a good budget and he urged the public to adopt it.

In responding to a question about relations among the board members, he noted that the three board members who are up for election, Angela Daley, Anna Niemann and Mary Scheutzow, are running unopposed. Sandler said that unlike previous board elections, which were marked with bitterness and acrimony, this year’s election reflects a “spirit of compromise.”

Along with the vote for the three board members, four propositions will appear on the ballot.

Four measures on the ballot

1. Proposition one: to approve the budget of $33.317 million

2. Proposition two: to lower the number of school board members from nine to seven as members’ terms expire

3. Proposition three: to enable the board to appoint one high school student to become a non-voting board member

4. Proposition four: to establish a capital reserve fund to be used for projects, such as completing the sports fields at the high school