Sewanhaka district residents approve $209 million budget for the 2020-21 school year

Robert Pelaez
Residents of the Sewanhaka School District approved the proposed $209 million budget for the 2020-21 school year. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Residents of the Sewanhaka Public School District approved the district’s $209 million budget for the 2020-21 school year.

According to a district representative, a total of 8,439 people voted to approve the budget, as opposed to 3,966 votes that were not in favor of the budget.

The budget of $209,265,063 represents an increase of 2.8 percent from the previous year. It amounts to approximately $25,864 per student, based on the projected 8,091 students enrolled in the district in 2020-21.

The budget is an increase of $5.7 million from last year’s $203.6 million one that was approved.

The budget received more than three times the amount of approval votes from the public than last year’s 2,581, according to figures provided by the district

A total of 12,405 votes were cast in this year’s budget election, according to the figures. In the past three years of budget elections, a total of 12,229 votes were cast.

A total of 8,636 votes were cast to approve budgets over the past three years, 197 more than the total of approval ballots cast solely for the 2020-21 budget.

The rise is partly due to an increase in salaries and retirement contributions. The Teachers’ Retirement System rate is projected to increase from 8.86 percent to 9.53 percent, and the Employees’ Retirement System is projected to increase from 15.1 percent to 15.4 percent on average.

This comes with a proposed tax levy increase of 2.72 percent, which is the limit for the district.

Of the budget, $1,830,362 goes toward capital improvements. These include installing safety vestibules in every school building and installing electronic locks on every classroom and office door.

The Sewanhaka Board of Education expects to receive $42,552,595 in state aid. This is a $799,716 increase from the aid that the district received last year.

The budgets passed despite the uncertain status of state aid for every district. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said school districts across New York should brace for up to 20 percent cuts to their funding from the state.

As per instructions from the governor’s office, all votes cast in all district elections were submitted to schools via absentee ballot dropped off at or mailed to schools, with no in-person voting taking place Tuesday.

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