In an effort to avert a significant tax hike, Superintendent Brian Timm proposed $491,000 in program cuts to Pine Plains Central School District’s 2026-27 draft budget.
Timm’s proposal includes cutting the elementary enrichment program, forgoing a planned hire for academic intervention services (AIS), and eliminating the two 5 p.m. buses. Additionally, the district would freeze all new equipment purchases.
“I don’t want to come across that there will be no impact,” Timm said at the Board of Education’s meeting on Tuesday, April 7. “But these adjustments we’re proposing are as least impactful as possible.”
The board’s projected spending plan for the coming academic year is $41,269,791 — a $2,557,455 rise over the current year, which is $781,569 more than the state’s tax levy limit. This total levy of 6.19% would exceed the tax cap by 2.79% and require the approval of a 60% supermajority in a vote scheduled for May 19.
Timm’s suggested cuts would bring the revised budget down to $40,778,791 — a $2,066,455 increase — and lower the total tax levy to 4.43%, which would exceed the allowable limit by 1.03%. Business Official Laura Rafferty, who presented the figures to the board, said, “We would still be piercing the tax cap, but only by $290,000.”
The revised 2026-27 proposed budget is slated for adoption by the board on April 21. “We’re still going to need a supermajority in order for it to pass,” Timm said, “but a 4.4% [tax rise] is much more palatable than 6.19%.”
According to Rafferty, district expenditures were driven upward by sharp increases in insurance and service costs, including a 16% jump in liability coverage and a 10% surge in both employee health premiums and BOCES fees. She said the impact of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed 2026-27 executive budget remains unknown, with state legislators extending the April 1 deadline for a second time to April 14.
The school district is projected to receive $8,634,631 in total state aid for the coming academic year. Foundation Aid accounts for 75% of this total ($6,586,823), although Timm has previously warned the board that future state budget cuts could slash this funding by as much as $4 million. The possible loss of Foundation Aid and declining student enrollment prompted the school board to consider shuttering one or more of its three schools in July 2024. This consolidation debate has been tabled while the Building Utilization Advisory Committee, created by the School Board in February, gathers information and files a report on Sept. 30.
Voicing concern over cutting the decade-old enrichment program, board member Jim Griffin asked, “Could we have some classroom-based enrichment outside of the dedicated program?” Timm agreed to investigate that possibility, but estimated that the proposed cut would impact no more than 20 students.
Board President Amie Fredericks worried that discontinuing the late buses could imperil sports participation. “There are definitely some students who depend on [the buses] to get home,” she said. “However, it could [free] up two drivers to help our sports runs. It’s terrible hearing that games are cancelled because there are no bus drivers.”
Timm assured the board that the district’s AIS would continue even without a dedicated staff member: For the past several years, special education teachers have filled this role. He also said that by adjusting equipment purchases, the district should be able to make it through the next school year.
According to Timm, the potential budget cuts were the most they could make with the least disruption. “To go and try to get the full $290,000 that’s remaining is going to 100% impact programs significantly,” he said.
Board member Fred “Chip” Couse, who sits on its audit-financial planning committee said, “This year’s tax bill will be below what it was in 2021 for most people. If you live in a town that has not done a total revaluation and you haven’t added to your property, you won’t get a 4.43% increase.” (Tax bills often don’t rise as much as the district’s budget because the cost is spread out across everyone’s assessed property values.)
In other business, Timm announced that the district’s 2026 summer school program will be dedicated solely to students with disabilities who are eligible for extended school-year services. “It has not been cost effective to run it for all students,” he said. Couse called for a closer review of the program costs at future meetings.
Finally, Rafferty said two school board seats will be open on July 1. Interested candidates should submit their petitions to District Clerk Julia Tomaine by 5 p.m. on April 20.
Go back to a one bell system like other schools districts.
When it comes to cutting the budget, we don’t understand why it is always at the expense of the students. With a 9 or 10 to 1:student to teacher ratio in PPCSD, one of the lowest in New York State, it seems to us that, in all fairness, some of the budget cutting should be done through the elimination of some teachers.
When it comes to closing any building, we feel it should be Seymour Smith, a giant money pit that will put further strains on the budget well into the future. We think all second graders could be added to Cold Spring, white the third to fifth graders could go to the 15 empty classrooms in the high school.