More than 900 voters in the Onteora Central School District braved the storms accompanied with power outages on Tuesday, May 15 to support the district’s 2018-2019 budget and school bus propositions.

A look at the $55.6 million budget and the three candidates for two school board seats.

Three Onteora students suspending for walking out of school to protest gun violence told the School Board they’d like to start an Activism Task Force to improve communication between students who want to express their political beliefs and school administrators.

The current 2018 budget of $54,296,155 will have an increase in spending of 2.36 percent, or $1,281,423. The proposed 2018/19-tax levy of $42,571,819 is a 2.98 percent increase compared to the 2017 levy of $41,338,014. The school board and budget vote is May 15.

“Regardless of how we feel about a particular initiative, we still have to maintain a safe school and we have to maintain our rules,” said the superintendent.

The Onteora Central School District Board of Education is once again looking at changing the way it transports students to-and-from its buildings within its 300 square mile mountainous landscape.

The BOE president praised the student organization of the March 14 walkout. “I’m not trying to be political about this, but I will say that they’ve done an incredible job at recognizing their own differences of opinions,” said Kevin Salem.

Moved by the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida where 17 people died at the hands of teenager, the Onteora Central School District will hold a Community Forum on safety at district schools at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, in the Middle/High School auditorium at the Boiceville campus. 

The recent mass shooting at a High School in Florida that killed 17 people — most of them children — necessitated Onteora District School officials to review school safety at their February 20 Board of Education meeting at the Middle/High School.

Agreements made with developers to encourage new business can mean shortfalls for local school districts.