Carmel Voters Reject School Budget a Second Time; Board to Adopt Contingency Plan
For the second time, voters in the Carmel Central School District defeated a budget Tuesday for $132 million for the 2021-2022 school year.
The second budget was revised and scaled down $1 million from the first proposed budget of $133 million, voted down in May. The June 15 vote was 1,755 opposed and 1,397 in favor.
With both proposed budgets defeated, the Board of Education, by law, has to adopt a contingency budget which is the same operating budget as last year, $131 million. Cuts to various departments are expected including reductions in staffing, no purchases for capital items, buses or equipment; the bus budget will be cut $251K, the budget for equipment will lose about $42.9K.
Additional cuts not yet itemized are expected to add up to $141,000. State guidelines for contingent budgets require an additional $591,566 in reductions overall. The contingency budget will have a zero percent tax levy increase.
Attempts to reach Superintendent of Schools Mary-Margaret Zehr for a comment on the defeated budget vote were unsuccessful.
Operating under a contingency budget, the district must honor all contracts, all state-mandated items, educational programs, ensure the health and safety of students and staff, and the preservation of district property.
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
