SPENCERPORT, N.Y. — News10NBC is tracking the results from Tuesday’s school budget votes. Voters approved budgets in all school districts across Monroe County and the Finger Lakes region, except for one.
The Spencerport Central School District’s budget failed by just 53 votes. So, what are the options after the $107 million budget failed?
RELATED: See the results from Tuesday night’s school budget votes across the region
The district has three options: holding another vote on the same budget, making adjustments before holding another vote, or adopting a contingency budget. A contingency budget would require spending cuts from the current proposal.
Contingent budgets cannot exceed the prior year’s tax levy and limit administrative spending. This year’s proposed budget was 4.5% higher compared to last year’s budget, which passed.
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The district’s funding priorities for this year include early intervention, mental health, security, retaining staff, and building maintenance. You can read more about what’s in the budget here. On Facebook, the district said it’s still working to determine whether to adopt a contingency budget or hold a revote in June. School leaders say they will keep the community posted.
Budget fails, but proposition two passes
Although Spencerport’s budget failed in a 798-745 vote, proposition two to authorize the purchase of laptops for students passed, 920-621. The district will now be allowed to use $536,000 from its technology and classroom equipment reserve fund to buy laptops.
More than 1,500 people voted on Tuesday night. The district says it hasn’t seen numbers that high since the 2021-2022 school year vote. The year before, fewer than 1,200 people voted.
The district’s highest voter turnout ever was for the 2020 to 2021 school budget, when it was absentee only. That year yielded nearly 3,900 votes. The lowest on record was the year before that, with just 875 votes.
Over the last decade, the rate of “yes” votes for the budget has been slipping. The 2018 to 2019 school budget vote had an 83% approval rate. In the last five years, the approval has been just over 50% or 60%. On Tuesday night, only 48% of people voted “yes”.
Which budget votes failed last year?
Last year, all school budgets in the Rochester and Finger Lakes regions passed in the first vote except for three: the Caledonia-Mumford, Gananda, and Oakfield-Alabama school districts.
Voters in Caledonia-Mumford and Gananda both approved revised school budgets a month later, but Oakfield-Alabama’s budget vote failed for a second time, forcing the district to adopt a contingent budget. Only two other districts in New York State had their budgets voted down twice that year.
The post What’s next after residents vote down Spencerport’s school budget? appeared first on WHEC.com.
