At the May 18 meeting, the Board of Education directed district administration to prepare a revised, proposed 2023-24 school budget that will minimize impacts to the district’s academic program and no cuts to safety and security at this time.

This directive simply requires a board consensus. This was given following a presentation by Superintendent Brian Monahan about the options available to the board and his recommendation to present a revised budget to voters.

A revised budget is one of three options available to the Board of Education. When a proposed school budget is defeated at the polls, New York State law gives school boards three options. Boards of Education may decide to put the same budget up for vote a second time in their communities, put a revised budget up for vote or go directly to a contingency budget.

“District administration has committed to us that every effort will be to minimize the impact on the district’s academic program, because preservation of this remains our first priority,” said Board President Joseph Flaherty.  “However, cuts are cuts and they’re never a good thing. We know and are confident that the district administration will do its very best work to minimize the pain caused by budget cuts.  We know the results of the May 16 vote were very close. We want the community to be prepared for the reality of what we must do next, given the initial proposed budget was rejected by voters.”

District administration will continue its thorough work to finalize a revised budget, which will be presented to the board for discussion and adoption at its Wednesday, May 24 meeting.  This meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. at the Middle School Auditorium.