By a 336-112 vote, Haldane school district residents on Tuesday (May 21) approved a $29.2 million budget for 2024-25 that represents a 3.45 percent increase in overall spending. Property taxes on a home valued at $500,000 will increase by $203, according to the district.
The turnout was 10 percent of registered voters.
The budget funds the addition of a second English as a New Language teacher ($100,000) and a third counselor ($100,000), and allocates $77,000 to give the district two full-time psychologists.
Voters also approved two other spending proposals: borrowing $275,380 to purchase two buses (a 65-passenger and a 16-passenger with a lift) and a zero-turn mower (342-106), and using $750,000 in capital reserves to replace the athletic field turf (322-125).
There were two open seats on the five-member school board, and two candidates. Maggie Valentine was elected to her second, 3-year term, with 379 votes, and newcomer Michelle Kupper, the immediate past president of the Haldane School Foundation, received 370 votes. Kupper will take the seat of John Hedlund, who did not seek a third term. The other members of the board are Peggy Clements, Sean McNall and Ezra Clementson.
