BROADALBIN – The Broadalbin-Perth Central School District Board of Education unanimously adopted a 2013-14 school budget proposal Monday that calls for about a 2 percent spending increase.
School district residents will vote on the roughly $30.06 million budget May 21.
The proposed budget calls for a tax-levy increase of 3.36 percent, or $433,836, which is under the district’s calculated tax levy cap of 5.98 percent, a news release said.
The proposed budget also includes the reinstatement or expansion of several programs that have been affected by budget cuts in recent years.
“In this budget proposal, we were able to preserve all of our current programs, bring back some programs that had been cut in recent years, and even add some new programs as part of our ongoing efforts to reimagine a Broadalbin-Perth education,” Superintendent of Schools Stephen Tomlinson said in the release. “However, we only wanted to add programs that we can sustain for the foreseeable future. So, even though the state formula says we could increase our tax levy by up to 5.98 percent, we chose not to propose a budget that would take us to our calculated cap.”
If the proposed budget is approved by voters, Broadalbin-Perth would reinstate district financial support for its junior varsity sports program (which was funded by the B-P Sports Booster Club during the 2012-13 school year), as well as two levels of modified sports.
The district also would add a second nurse at the Perth campus, which houses students in third through eighth grade. In addition, the district would reinstate upper-level French classes at the high school.
The proposed budget also includes funding to expand Broadalbin-Perth’s Exploring Student Potential program to serve twice as many students in kindergarten through fifth grade, as it has during the 2012-13 school year. The district also would add a college-level foreign language elective in introductory Italian, and opportunities for five high school students to participate in Hudson Valley Community College’s new Clean Technologies and Sustainable Industries Early College High School program.
Broadalbin-Perth also would bring back its students who are currently attending Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery Board of Cooperative Educational Services’ Alternative High School and provide them “with an environment that offers academic and social opportunities at a reduced cost,” the release said.
Broadalbin-Perth will host a public hearing about the budget proposal at 7 p.m. May 7 in the high school auditorium.
Details about the proposed 2013-14 budget will be included in the district’s budget newsletter, which will be mailed to all district residents at the end of the month.
Detailed information about the proposed budget also will be posted on the district website, www.bpcsd.org.
