Webutuck School budget vote is Tuesday, May 17

Webutuck School budget vote is Tuesday, May 17

WEBUTUCK — With just one week left until the annual school district budget vote, the Webutuck Board of Education (BOE) made sure the public was brought up to speed on this year’s budget development process at the public hearing for the 2022-23 budget on Monday, May 9.

The BOE convened for the meeting at 7 p.m. over Zoom. Before turning the budget presentation over to Webutuck Business Administrator Robert Farrier, Webutuck BOE President Judy Moran invited this year’s BOE candidates to introduce themselves to the public.

In addition to voting on the approval of the 2022-23 district budget and a proposition for a transportation vehicle purchase, district voters will be asked to cast their ballots for the election of two BOE members to fill the expiring seats of incumbent BOE members Christopher Mayville and John Merwin. If elected, BOE candidates will serve a three-year term starting Friday, July 1 through June 30, 2025. This year’s BOE candidates are Nichole Reyes and Anthony Robustelli. Reyes presented her candidates for the Webutuck BOE at the board’s recent meeting; Robustelli was unable to attend.

A resident of Millerton, Reyes introduced herself as “the mother of a rising Pre-K and first grader at Webutuck.” On the weekends, Reyes said the community will see her and her husband volunteering at their son’s baseball and soccer games; Reyes is also a volunteer at the North East Community Center in Millerton as part of the organization’s Events Committee. During the week, Reyes is an operational and administrative consultant. Before moving to the community in 2020, Reyes worked as executive director at a nonprofit for children with disabilities in New York City; she also outlined her experience working for a private equity firm in the city. 

Regarding her decision to run for the BOE, she told BOE members she hoped her experience and passion will be an asset to the board and bring another parent’s voice to the table.

Reviewing many of the items presented at previous BOE meetings, Farrier said the proposed 2022-23 district budget came to $25,039,114, totaling a 1% (or $240,031) budget-to-budget increase from the 2021-22 district budget. The proposed tax levy limit came to $16,973,699. Farrier said this year’s maximum allowable levy was 4.9% and the district’s proposed levy came to 4.7%.

As for the revenue required for the budget, Farrier said state aid and other sources comprised $6,165,415, and the district will be using $1.9 million of its appropriated fund balance. Additions to the budget include a certified health teacher; a Pre-K teacher and special education teacher to accommodate additional sections of Pre-K and special education; a social worker; and an Academic Intervention Services teacher in each building to close the learning gap.

Looking at budget components, Farrier said about 76% of the budget goes to programs while 3.3% of the budget is capital costs and about 10% is administrative costs.

If the budget isn’t passed as proposed and the BOE chooses to either go directly to a contingent budget or put up another budget, Farrier said in the event that the two budgets aren’t passed, they’d go to a contingent budget. He said the amount to be reduced under a contingent budget from the proposed budget would be $756,970, totaling $24,282,144. Under the contingent budget, Farrier said the tax levy can be higher than the previous year’s levy; the administrative cap is applied and can be no more than 9.8%; and it’d be up to the BOE to decide what items are contingent expenses.

Looking at the estimated 2022-23 full value tax rate based on the 2022 tentative roll assessment, Farrier said under the proposed budget, the projected True Value Tax Rate is $10.56 per $1,000 assessed value. However, he noted in his presentation that final tax rates won’t be available until August.

The Webutuck school district budget vote will be held on Tuesday, May 17, from 12 to 9 p.m. in the Webutuck High School gymnasium. Farrier encouraged the public to contact him or Webutuck Superintendent of Schools Raymond Castellani with any questions they might have.

Since there was no public comment, the BOE closed the public hearing at 7:16 p.m. and proceeded with its meeting.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less