News

Proposed Corning-Painted Post school district budget includes tax increase

WSKG | By Natalie Abruzzo

Published April 22, 2024 at 11:38 AM EDT

Paul Webster presents the Corning-Painted Post Area School District’s proposed school budgets for next year at the regular school board meeting April 17.

The proposed budget for one Steuben County school district includes increased taxes for property owners.

Last week, the Corning-Painted Post school board voted to approve a $139.1 million school budget proposal for the 2024-25 school year.

The budget includes a 1.08 percent increase to the tax levy, bringing the total to 4.97 percent.

Voters can approve or reject the proposal in May.

“So, the community is the one who makes the choice,” said Dale Wexell, C-PP school board president. “And so far every year, they've said yes, I approve the budget. Which sort of indicates yes, we want what directions that you have for your school district. So okay, we'll give them the opportunity to say yes, I still want to retain those things as we move forward. Or no, we need to sort of back off here, and that's what the board will do.”

The tax increase requires 60 percent of the voters to approve in order to move forward with the budget.

A public hearing will be held on May 14 with a vote on May 21.

Members of the Corning-Painted Post school board voted on April 19 to approve the proposed school budget for next year with the higher tax levy.

If the budget is not adopted, a second vote for a slightly smaller budget of $138 million and tax levy of 2.97 percent will be held in June.

That budget option has a deficit of $1.1 million and cuts more than a dozen jobs and some student and staff activities, like social workers, school resource officers and teaching assistants.

“We are one of those school districts that has a large number of teaching assistants,” Wexell explained. “Without those in the classroom, a teacher sometimes just can't be as effective because you cannot deal with four or five different groups of students simultaneously. So the presence of those teaching assistants makes a big difference on the effectiveness of education. So, we're down to 2.97 percent. And if we raise the tax levy by another 2 percent, basically, we retain all of the programs that we have, and we hardly lose any people at all.”

School board elections for three positions will also take place in May.

Candidate information will be available on the district’s website next month, according to a school board spokesperson.