The Poughkeepsie City School District can put to rest any fear of whether its $81.6 million budget for 2008-2009 will pass, since the official announcement made on May 21 indicated it did by a 614-455 tally.
The preliminary vote, counted the previous night, revealed 236 of the votes were recorded from Poughkeepsie Middle School, but Wednesday’s announcement made by district clerk Maria McCabe revealed a computation error was made during Tuesday’s machine count tally, and 100 extra “yes” votes were recorded at Poughkeepsie Middle School, making the total preliminary count 714 votes in favor of the budget.
McCabe said it was fortunate that the error didn’t have any negative impact and was determined on the day the official numbers were announced.
Some residents questioned while out voting on May 20 didn’t share their budget preference, but their hope for the students’ well-being was clear.
“I think it (the budget) reflects the approach the superintendent wants to establish in order to keep students in school and graduating,” said resident Jackie Efram. “I hope they will address the needs, so kids don’t fall into the cracks.”
Others were displeased with the tax burden.
“You’ve got taxpayers on fixed-incomes,” said resident John Teliho, who voted against the spending plan. “You can’t keep putting up 3, 4, 5-percent increases every year.”
One area where Teliho would like to see change is benefits for the salaries of district employees, he said.
Charter and Staino re-elected
Of the four candidates running for school board seats, current board members Gregory Charter and Ellen Staino were re-elected during the voting on Tuesday.
On May 21, after tallying absentee ballots and affidavits, McCabe said Staino received 743 votes, followed by Charter, who received 658. Constantine “Gus” Kazolias received 596 votes, and Lance A. Hardy earned 369.
Charter and Staino’s three-year-terms will commence on July 1 and run through June 30, 2011.
“I want to thank all of the citizens of Poughkeepsie for their vote of confidence,” said Staino, who said she is up for the tasks and challenges that may arise.
“It’s been a rough couple of weeks, but it’s a good feeling,” said Charter, a Pop Warner football coach who compared the feeling of waiting for the final results to the game of football, either right before kick-off or during fourth and goal.
“Thank you to the citizens of Poughkeepsie for investing in our children,” said board member Robert Creedon, referencing the passing budget.
District administration was pleased to see their hard work on the budget pay off.
“The educational plans of the district can only get implemented if we have adequate funds to support those initiatives,” said Superintendent Laval S. Wilson.
“I think supporting the budget was great, and I appreciate the votes by the citizens,” said Kevin Sheldon, in his first year as assistant superintendent for business with the district.