By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
RAVENA-COEYMANS-SELKIRK — Voters on Tuesday will cast ballots to approve or reject a proposed $53.5 million budget for the RCS school district for the 2023-24 school year.
The proposed $53,548,486 budget includes an increase of $2,291,557 in spending, or 4.47%, compared to last year.
“The expense plan, or what we’re going to be voting on this year, is an increase of a little bit over $2.2 million, or 4.47% increase from the previous year,” said School Business Administrator Jesse Boehme. “That is made up of about 8.8% administrative costs, 75% program costs and about 14% capital costs.”
The amount to be raised by taxes, or the tax levy, would increase by 1.48%, which is within the state mandated tax cap. For Coeymans homeowners with a property valued at $100,000, the school tax bill would increase from $1,777 to $1,803, an increase of $26.30 for the year.
Bethlehem homeowners would see an increase of $29.06, from an annual bill of $1,963 this year to $1,992 next year. New Baltimore homeowners would have a bill rising from $3,041 this year to $3,087 next year, a jump of $45, while New Scotland homeowners’ school tax bill would go up by $30.85 for the year, from $2,084 this year to $2,115 next year.
The final assessments will not be ready until the summer, so final dollar amounts for individual homeowners will not be known until those numbers are released by the state in July or August.
“The primary reasons for increases in areas of the budget are related to contractual obligations; the UPK (Universal Pre-Kindergarten) and hiring additional staff for that; additional staff around our CTE (Career and Technical Education) programs; benefit increases, which is unfortunately true in every industry in the state and nation right now; and a capital outlay project,” District Superintendent Dr. Brian Bailey said.
The capital outlay project is a $100,000 project the district would be reimbursed for in part next year, which would replace water heaters in the middle school that have outlived their useful life. The district would be reimbursed via state aid at 72.1% of the total project cost, so the district would essentially pay $28,000 for a $100,000 project, Bailey said.
Of the $53.5 million proposed school budget, about half — $27,010,669 — would be raised by taxes, an increase of 1.48%, or $394,492 compared to last year. Of the remaining funds, about 38.6% would be covered by state aid, 4.8% would come from the district’s fund balance, and 6.2% would come from miscellaneous revenue, Boehme reported.
In addition to voting on the proposed school budget May 16, voters will also elect three board of education members (see accompanying article), as well as a resolution approving the purchase of three new 64-passenger diesel school buses not to exceed $495,084.
“This is part of our bus replacement plan that we have done over the last few years,” Boehme said.
Voters will also decide on a resolution to establish a capital reserve to save money for future capital projects.
“There’s no impact on our taxpayers at all,” Boehme said. “This is just to set it up. The reason why we set this up is to try to save money down the line with excess funds to try to lower the local cost on capital projects. We could set this up and never put any money in it — it has no impact on our taxpayers at all.”
Voters on May 16 will also determine the fate of the proposed budget for the RCS Community Library for the coming year. The proposed budget stands at $637,297, an increase of $9,418 compared to this year. Three candidates will also be on the ballot running for two seats on the library’s board of trustees.
The three candidates are Deborah Carr, Bryan Rowzee and Fonda Lloyd.
The budget vote and board of education election will take place Tuesday, May 16, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., in the RCS High School main gym.