Dundee budget shows 6.4 percent increase

DUNDEE—School Business Official Melissa Lawson gave an overview of the core education budget for the 2013-14 school year which contains a 6.4 percent tax levy increase during the school board’s meeting Wednesday, Feb. 13. Lawson said the number is only as the budget currently stands, and there will be adjustments to it later on in the budget process.
Lawson said the total budget as it currently stands is $15,222,709, up $809,564 from last year. She said the board talked about using money from the reserve fund to bring the tax levy increase down, but they are still deliberating on which funds to use. A reserve analysis conducted in November shows the complete balance of reserve funds is at $10,258,859, which includes $1.5 million in unassigned reserve along with the reserve funds meant for restricted uses. Lawson said the total amount to be used from the reserve fund has also not been determined.
The board scheduled a budget workshop for Thursday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m. to look over the budget and see where costs can be saved. The board will hold deliberations Thursday, March 14 and hopes to have a final version adopted by their April 11 meeting. The public hearing will be May 7 with the budget vote May 21.
In other business:
• Nominating petitions for the board of education election are due to the district clerk by Monday, April 15 by 5 p.m. The election will be held Tuesday, May 14 and has seats held by James Koehler, Paul Brown and Kristen Van Valkenburg to be filled for three year terms. Petitions require at least 25 signatures.
• The board accepted the resignation of high school art teacher Nancy Streb effective June 30. Maureen Ebert and Chris Redington were conditionally appointed as substitute teachers for the remainder of the 2012-13 school year. Christine Diamond-Hallam was appointed as school psychologist starting Monday, March 4 for a two year period. Nancy Sisbarro and Patrick Dunham were appointed as co-musical directors for the high school musical.
• The board agreed to accept a $100 donation from the Starkey Citizens for a Clean and Healthy Environment.
• Field trips were approved for Gemini/ACE foreign language classes to attend Nazareth College to see Diablo performed in Spanish, French, English and Italian Thursday, Feb. 28. A masterminds competition was also approved for Monday, March 11 at Midlakes along with an eight grade skills competition at BOCES Tuesday, March 12.