Administrators present Kingston School Board with five preliminary budget options
The Kingston City School District’s spending plan for the 2023-24 school year is coming into greater focus, but the Board of Education is still considering a number of different options before adopting it for public vote.
The district was given an allowable tax levy increase by New York State of 3.23 percent, which when weighed against the 2022-23 final budget would total $110,619,512, an increase of $3,568,833. But in the past eight years, Kingston has only asked for the maximum levy increase twice, opting to go below it six times, including a zero percent increase in the 2020-21 school year.
During a meeting of the Board of Education held on Wednesday, March 15, district administrators presented trustees with five different preliminary budget options, with the tax levy increase ranging from zero to the maximum allowable.
Using their rollover template, district officials are using a preliminary budget figure of $219,520,208, a $16,396,700 — or 8.07 percent — change over the current school year’s spending plan. Those figures are likely to go lower in the coming weeks, said school officials.
“We continue to refine, refine, refine,” said Superintendent Paul Padalino, noting that the preliminary budget includes fully funding staff and programs previously covered by federal funding due to expire later this year.
The Kingston City School District received $6.4 million through the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act enacted on December 20, 2020; and $15.1 million through the federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act enacted on March 11, 2021.