Hudson City School District voters have approved the board’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year — increasing the district’s funding by just over 1%.
The budget was controversial practically from the moment it was proposed. As WAMC has previously reported, the more-than $59 million package is funded by a 5.8% tax levy, as well as a substantial withdrawal from the district’s reserves. Even so, the budget eliminates 23 teaching and administrative positions, and sacrifices significant funding for new equipment.
The vote became a flashpoint for debate at council meetings and online, where several influential blogs and social media accounts raised questions about why Hudson students have performed poorly on standardized tests in recent years. In conversations outside the polling location on Tuesday, it was clear those talking points had resonated with many voters.
Others, however, rejected testing as a meaningful metric. They said much of the resistance to the board’s budget proposal was fueled by newcomers to the city who aren’t invested in the well-being of children who live there. Those with kids currently enrolled in city schools acknowledged that the budget is high, and the tax levy is steep. They voted for it anyway.
Elsewhere around the Hudson Valley, Kingston City School District also passed a larger budget than last year, but will still lose nearly 60 staff members, including teachers.
In New Lebanon and Pine Plains districts, the budget proposals did not pass. The proposals technically won a majority of votes, but the ballots asked voters to support a tax levy above the legal cap. Those measures require at least 60% support, and margins in both locations fell short on Tuesday. Among other cuts, a pair of Pine Plains bus routes and several elementary school programs are facing elimination. New Lebanon and Pine Plains voters will now wait to see if their boards decide to revise their budgets and bring them back for another vote next month.
Most other districts around the state did pass their budgets, many by sizable margins.
In other notable results, Broadalbin-Perth Central School District held what it calls “Kids Vote Too” elections alongside the budget and Board of Education contests. Voters ranging in age from kindergarten to sixth grade were given a choice between popcorn, nachos, or pudding cups being added to next year’s menu at a school snack bar. Popcorn won.
