The Pine Plains Central School District is still in the dark about whether it will lose $4 million in Foundation Aid —nearly half of the anticipated state funding for the 2025-26 budget. While Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget was supposed to have been finalized on April 1, Business Official Laura Rafferty said she received an email less than two hours before the Wednesday, April 9, Pine Plains School Board meeting saying that it had not yet passed.
According to Julia Tomaine, personnel administrator, New York state law mandates that the final school budget must be available as a public document by April 25 — well ahead of the May 20 vote. According to Rafferty, the governor’s budget has been held up for a number of reasons, including a debate over a public face mask ban and the restriction of smartphone use in public schools. Also at issue is the proposed reform of New York’s discovery laws, intended to end procedural delays and prevent automatic case dismissals.
“Both legislative houses adjourned today without any action,” said Rafferty. “We are waiting to see what the funding extender [a stopgap spending measure] may be.”
The email ended with “[W]e will follow up with additional information and resources to help you prepare for upcoming budget votes in the absence of a final state budget.” Said Superintendent Brian Timm, “That indicates that we may be waiting for a long time.”
Board member Fred “Chip” Couse added, “We have to move forward either way. Our expenses won’t change — we know what those are — and they need to be approved by the community. What will change is where the revenue comes from.” According to Rafferty, district financial reserves may be used to cover expenses until the final state budget is passed.
“The Trump administration’s tariffs will also have an impact [currently paused for 90 days],” said Rafferty, “so we needed to change the language in our bus purchase proposition.” Proposition 3 on the May district ballot seeks authorization for the purchase of two 71-passenger buses ($164,163 each) and an eight-passenger Chevy Suburban ($68,043).
“We need permission from the community to spend more, just in case,” said Timm. “Our lawyers [Shaw, Perelson, May & Lambert LLP] recommended that the proposition include a buffer for the tariffs — a 30% cost increase of $188,911 — but the money won’t be used unless absolutely necessary.” Timm said there is enough in the school district’s reserve fund to cover the added expense. “If the language isn’t added, we might have to go to the voters again to ask for a separate amount,” he said.
Rafferty discussed the current version of the district’s proposed $38,712,336 million budget. ”There’s not a whole lot of change from the first draft [presented at the March 19 meeting],” she said. “About 80% of our budget is spent on programs for the students. The remainder is split between administrative and capital project costs.” Timm added that the district is working to keep annual budgetary increases low. “Last year, our budget increased by 3.5%; this year it’s only higher by 2.71%,” he said. “We’re also trying to stay under the 3.57% tax cap.” The district’s tax levy will rise by 3.2% this year, providing $27,885,802 in funding to the district.
Timm also reviewed Proposition 2, which creates a $15 million reserve fund for school facilities and building improvements. “The district has two five-year capital reserve funds set to expire — one from 2019 has $2.3 million left, the other from 2021 has $3.3 million left. We’ll transfer all that money to the new one,” he said. “Most capital projects take at least seven years to get off the ground, so the new reserve will have a 10-year term.”
District capital projects are still under discussion. “We have close to three quarters of a million dollars left over from our previous capital projects, and we’d like to approve that money to redo Seymour Smith’s floors,” Timm said.
Referring to possible downsizing from three school buildings to two because of declining student enrollment, board member Jean Stapf asked, “Should we first make sure that Seymour is the school we’ll consolidate to, before spending that money?”(At the last school board meeting, Timm estimated a $25 million price tag to upgrade the intermediate learning center.) “The work isn’t scheduled until the summer of 2026; we’ll have decided by then whether we’re using Seymour Smith or not—so we’ll have time to change the plan if necessary,” he said. According to Timm, the money must be assigned to a capital project or it defaults to the general fund, which complicates its future use.
Timm also discussed the Winners Circle, a proposed initiative in which students would collaborate to build and sell a race car. “I’m not sure whether we should go forward with his project in this climate of uncertainty,” he said. Couse said the school has the money to kickstart the program, “But the budget for Winners Circle — $175,000 — is more than the entire district athletic budget,” he said. “And what kind of guidelines do we have to monitor the initiative’s success in order for it to continue?” The board agreed to table further discussion until the governor’s budget passed.
Timm said that due to remodeling at Stissing Mountain High School, the April 22 board meeting will again be in the cafeteria — which has no video streaming capability. “Once we’re back in the library, we’ll have meaty conversations about the Winners Circle and the Seymour Smith capital project,” he said. “I want to be as transparent as possible.”
A public budget hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. on May 7 at the next Pine Plains School Board meeting.