The New Paltz Central School District will ask voters to approve a $63,640,000 budget for the 2019-2020 school year. The vote will be held at the high school on Tuesday, May 21. The budget reflects a 2.98 percent increase over the current 2018-19 budget and includes a 3.98 percent tax levy increase.
The New Paltz Central School District Board of Education devoted their entire regular meeting of Wednesday, March 27 to a community budget forum. Many more people than usual attended the session, with two prominent themes emerging: the school community’s desire for smaller class sizes and overall support for the proposed Wellness Center.
It’s always good news when New Paltz High School’s Drama Club performs its annual spring musical; but this year, the headlines are the headlines.
Highland High School has lifted a “shelter in place” order put into effect Thursday afternoon while law enforcement investigated a disturbing social media post. According to Superintendent of Schools Thomas Bongiovi, the building has now been cleared.
Budget talks continue; details on $450k bus proposition; voting hours will remain the same despite pressure to change them.
The $300,000 Wellness Center would be used by all high school students during the school day as part of their required physical fitness courses, and potentially after school with appropriate supervision. Intended to offer students additional opportunities for stress relief and other benefits of physical fitness, the Wellness Center would include 42 stations for working out with a separate area for activities such as yoga and stretching.
The names are being changed because the buildings’ namesakes, the founding families of the town, owned slaves prior to slavery’s abolition in New York State. The new building names pay homage to local geographic features. They will be assigned to the campus buildings to mirror their actual locations – for instance, Lefevre Hall, the eastern-most of the buildings, will become Shawangunk Hall, because the Shawangunk Ridge is the eastern-most of these features.
After a 48-year career in the New Paltz Central School District, New Paltz High School Principal Barbara Clinton is retiring, effective July 5. This leaves the school district with three principals to hire for the 2019-2020 school year.
The primary message that came across throughout the evening from those who asked questions or made statements was the desire to see more proactive action from the district in addressing issues of safety that include outside threats coming into the schools and internal issues such as reported incidents of racism, bullying and sexual harassment on school property.
Six campus buildings that carried the name of the town’s original Huguenot settlers, who owned slaves, will be named for local places, Native American tribes and a bird.