A month later than normal, through a far different -and more popular, as it turned out – process than in years past, three area school districts received overwhelming public approval for their 2020-21 budgets.
And in doing so, each of these districts saw voter participation increase by large margins, with residents able to vote by mail instead of being required to travel to a polling place. Ballots were accepted until June 15 due to revised New York State guidelines.
At Fayetteville-Manlius, the district’s $88.3 budget for 2020-21 passed 3,743-1,585. It calls for a 2.82 percent increase in spending and a 2.94 percent increase in the tax levy.
The 5,300-plus votes cast by F-M residents was more than four times the amount of participants as 2019, when just 1,213 voters took part.
With four candidates vying for three F-M School Board seats carrying three-year terms, Kelly Fumarola (3,748), Rebecca Cohen (3,617) and Jason Catalino (3,024) prevailed over Christopher McKee, who finished fourth with 2,303 votes.
Two other resolutions passed. By a vote of 3,479-1,813, voters approved the district’s purchase of five school buses totaling more than $681,000. Also, a place for a non-voting student board member was passed 4,590-687.
Also, district voters easily approved the district’s annual support for area libraries. The vote for Manlius Library ($1.36 million) went 3,742-1,509, with the vote for Fayetteville Free Library ($1.89 million) favored 3,542-1,750.
At Jamesville-DeWitt, the $58.6 million budget plan increased 1.6 percent from a year ago, with a 3.3 percent increase in the district’s tax levy.
Like at F-M, the J-D budget passed by a comfortable margin, 2,349-845, and the nearly 3,200 ballots marked a nearly threefold increase over the 1,186 that did so in 2019.
Seven candidates were competing for three seats on the J-D School Board. Only one of them, Christine Woodcock Detor, was an incumbent, and she earned the most votes (1,722) in the field.
Woodcock Detor is joined on the board by newcomers G. Joseph Gross (1,444) and David Leach, whose 1,181 votes was just 58 more than fourth-place Kerry Coleman-Herrick (1,123). Michelle Kielblanski (941), Michael Gilbert (716) and Stephen Theobald (368) rounded out the field.
J-D also had separate referendums for purchases of five school buses costing nearly $700,000, which passed 2,238-960, and a dump truck/snow plow for $244,000 which was approved 2,156-1,034.
East Syracuse Minoa voters approved a plan of $84.1 mlllion that increased the budget from 2019-20 by 2.17 percent and the tax levy by 2.3 percent.
The vote went 2,153-604 in favor, and here the voting totals nearly quadrupled from 2019, with more than 2,700 ballots returned as opposed to the 695 a year earlier.
A proposition to spend nearly $995,000 on the purchase of school buses passed 2,130-629, while another proposition to transfer $2.5 million from the district’s Debt Service Reserve Fund to its 2017 Capitol Reserve Fund sailed through 2,312-432.
Kim Gallery and D. Paul Waltz ran unopposed for three-year terms on the ESM School Board.
In each of these districts, budget figures included anticipated state aid, which could change at a later date if the number is affected by anticipated state budget cuts.
