By a 190-55 vote, Garrison school district residents on Tuesday (May 21) approved a $13.4 million budget for 2024-25, an increase of 6.4 percent. The levy will rise by 4.4 percent to $11.2 million, the maximum amount allowed under the state’s tax cap, and the district said annual taxes on a property valued at $400,000 would increase by $143.
The turnout was 11 percent of registered voters.
The budget includes funding for a kindergarten teacher ($116,700) to meet a projected enrollment increase, $69,000 for an arts-in-education program through Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES, $30,000 for a new school sign and $25,000 for field trips.
High school tuition expenses for 11 additional students in grades nine to 12 will rise by $168,034. The district also plans to spend $250,000 to replace the gym roof (offset by a $125,000 grant) and $78,073 more for transportation services.
The ballot included two proposals authorizing the district to extend through June 2029 its contracts to send eighth-grade graduates to Haldane and O’Neill high schools. Each passed easily, 235-9 and 222-23.
A fourth proposal, which passed 215-26, allows the district to register voters throughout the year instead of on two specific dates. Registration will be cut off five days before an election or vote.
There were three candidates for three open seats on the seven-member board. An incumbent, Jennifer Harriton-Wilson, an education technology coordinator at Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES, was elected to a three-year term with 193 votes, while Peter Lesser, who works in educational publishing and has two children attending the school, received 194 votes and Eric Arnold, an editorial director at a marketing agency who also has two children in the district, received 190.
Courtney McCarthy and David Gelber did not run for re-election. The other members of the board are Sarah Tormey, Kent Schacht, Jocelyn Apicello and Dan Jasnow.
