Pine Plains Board of Ed adopts 2021-22 school district budget

PINE PLAINS — With the annual school budget vote scheduled for next month, the Pine Plains Central School District (PPCSD) Board of Education (BOE) wasted no time in adopting the 2021-22 budget at its meeting on Wednesday, April 21.

 BOE members assembled at 7 p.m. in-person in the Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School library. The meeting was also live streamed to the district’s website, www.ppcsd.org.

To preface its adoption, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Michael Goldbeck informed the BOE that the budget being presented that evening was nearly identical to the budget he presented two weeks ago. However, there was a slight difference in two budget lines: the amount budgeted for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) Career & Technical Institute (CTI) program was increased by $11,725, and the BOCES Special Education budget decreased by the same amount.

Goldbeck attributed the increase in the CTI program line to an additional student who is interested in attending next year.

“I’m very supportive of that program and I’m happy to see that increase,” he said.

Overall, Goldbeck said the total budget and year-to-year increase didn’t change and is consistent with the full budget that was presented to the BOE on Wednesday, April 7.

Regarding the BOE’s plans to submit the property tax report card to New York State on Thursday, April 22, Goldbeck said one aspect he wanted to bring to the board’s attention was the district had to list what it has estimated as appropriated fund balance. 

Providing a breakdown of the calculation data behind the property tax report card, he said the “big number” there is the amount of money he’s anticipating will be available for the capital project, which totals $2.4 million. Assuming the district has the $2.4 million, Goldbeck said the balance to fund over the next two to three years would be $1.8 million and change. He went on to say some or all of that could be appropriated from the year-end fund balance from subsequent years or from short-term borrowing.

Goldbeck noted on a later date that the BOE discussed an estimated amount. While the budget was submitted to the state via the property tax report card, he said the appropriated fund balance number will be determined as part of the calculation of its year-end fund balance in relation to the tax warrant, which won’t be finalized until August.

“While our goal will be to minimize the amount that may need to be borrowed to fund the project, those numbers are not by any means final at this point,” Goldbeck said.

 BOE President Chip Couse asked for a motion to adopt the 2021-22 school district budget in the amount of $34,176,675, indicating an increase of $651,225 or 1.94% from this year’s budget. The budget was unanimously approved.

On Wednesday, May 5, the BOE will hold the required public hearing on the fiscal plan at 7 p.m. The annual school district budget vote will be held from noon to 9 p.m., on Tuesday, May 18. 

In addition to the 2021-22 budget vote, the ballot will feature a capital project, a proposition to establish a new capital reserve and the election of three new BOE members.

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