Pine Plains Central School District voters rejected the district’s proposed 2026-27 budget Tuesday, May 19, after the spending plan failed to secure the 60% supermajority required for passage.
The budget received 458 yes votes and 432 no votes, with 51.5% of voters supporting the proposal. Because the district’s spending plan exceeded the state tax cap, it needed at least 60% approval to pass.
At a Board of Education meeting held after the polls closed on Tuesday night, board members certified the results.
The vote leaves the district to decide whether to resubmit the same budget, propose a revised spending plan, or eventually adopt a contingency budget if voters reject a second proposal. District officials had previously warned that a revised budget brought under the tax cap could require at least $291,000 in additional cuts. A contingency budget could require deeper reductions.
The proposed $40.78 million budget represented a 5.34% increase over the current year and came after the school board had already approved $491,000 in cuts to programs and services, including the elementary enrichment program, two 5 p.m. bus routes and new equipment purchases.
Voters also approved a separate bus purchase proposition, 489 to 403. The measure authorizes the district to buy two 71-passenger buses and three 35-passenger buses, with the purchase funded through a bus reserve previously approved by voters.
In the school board race, incumbent James Griffin was reelected to a three-year term with 541 votes. Amie Buehler was elected with 516 votes. Brooke Brown received 460 votes, according to the district’s results.
The school district, K-12 has about 850 students. With a $40 million budget, that is over $47000 per student per year. You can send your child to private school for less.
We currently have a 9 to 1 teacher to student ratio. When I grew up it was 20 to 1, sometimes more. Sorry teachers, we have too many!
We currently have bus capacity for over 1400 students. 1. Why do we need so many extra seats? 2. Why are we adding to a surplus fleet, and from what I hear from insiders the bus routes are poorly planned to pick up very few kids on an extremely long route?? Do we even have a route that picks up 71 kids to fill one bus??
Finally, with 850 students, K-12, if we go with the 20-1 ratio, we need 42 classrooms. Why are we keeping 3 buildings open to house so few children. Close Cold Spring, Start consolidation at the high school and eventually shutter Seymour Smith.
It’s simple math. But no one wants to look at the numbers and ratios. They vote from the heart. Well, I’m voting from my wallet and I’m tired of this state’s hand in it constantly.
Shawn T…I don’t know you but let me explain a few things..first a 71 passenger bus does not hold 71 kids if they are older than about 8…a three person seat on this size bus allows for 14 inches of seat room. Bus companies rate this as 71 people but they don’t actually fit that many. Howcver, a larger bus does do a few things…1 it allows for more student pick ups with less drivers since a standard bus holds 60, which save the district money. 2. The newer buses are also more fuel efficient, which also saves the district money. So that should make your penny pinching happy!
As for class size, in the past a 20:1 ratio was possible and quite possibly was what you had. But, I can also guarantee you had less instances of special needs documentation, more parental support, and less options for kids to choose from. Schools could punish kids when you were in school, that is no longer an option. Your opinion on 9:1 student to adult ratio is not actually correct. There are students who need 1:1 situations. That is included in the 9:1. There are mandates for readers for tests and aides to assist, also included in the 9:1 ratio. The 20:1 ratio is not taking into account all of the needs of a district and would actually mean classrooms with 30-40 kids in them. This impacts educational opportunities and the abilities of kids to learn. In addition, it eliminates opportunities that are considered extras – sports, extracurricular activities, the arts, career and technical education and more. When you reject a school budget you reject a lot more than a classroom size or new pencils. You reject the chance for kids to learn and grow as people.
My suggestion is that you should apply to become a substitute in your district, see what a school is like and see how awesome the teachers are at Pine Plains. It’s easy to vote no, maybe you should actually see first hand what you voted no to!
IMHO, the failure of the budget to obtain the needed supermajority was entirely predictable. There is a very well-established track record of votes in many other school districts in New York State in which virtually no school budget needing a supermajority to pass obtains one. This was the school board, hoping against hope, that a small portion of the electorate (only 890 voters out of an estimated voting electorate of over 7,000 bothered to vote!) would vote to pass this. The school board must have known that a supermajority vote was highly unlikely, but the board irresponsibly declined to make the additional cuts necessary to present a budget within the tax cap. Now, the school board essentially has no choice but to do so or face a catastrophic set of cuts under a contingency budget. Let’s hope the school board finally faces up to its responsibility to present a budget with the necessary spending restraint that voters can endorse.