Lyndonville proposes $16.9 million school budget with 1% tax increase

Photos by Tom Rivers: Jeff Qamoos (left), a high school math teacher who also teaches robotics at Lyndonville, shows Lyndonville school officials and parents self-driving cars created by his students. Bart Schuler, the school business administrator, looks over the cars. The Board of Education held a “field trip” to Qamoos’s classroom during a break in the board meeting on Monday evening.

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 9 May 2023 at 10:24 am

LYNDONVILLE – The school district will be presenting a $16,939,491 budget to the public for a vote on May 16. That budget increases spending by $1,234,538 or by 7.9 percent from 15,704,953 in 2022-23.

However, the tax increase would be 1 percent or by $46,187 to $4,664,927. The district projects the average tax rate among the four towns in the district will increase from $16.32 to $16.48 per $1,000 of assessed property.

The budget calls for a state aid increase of $1,702,433 or up by 17 percent. That will help the district with an 8 percent increase in the consumer price index.

Voting for the budget will be from noon to 8 p.m. at the Stroyan Auditorium Foyer at the school.

Lyndonville is the smallest of the five school districts in Orleans County. Lyndonville is projecting student enrollment will stay at 560 in 2023-24.

The district’s cost-per-pupil was $21,217 in the 2020-21 school year, more than the $18,955 county average and less than the $23,468 state-wide average, according to Lyndonville’s financial transparency report.

The vote on May 16 also includes:

• A proposition to purchase one 64-seat passenger bus and one mini-bus, not to exceed $275,000. The bus will be purchased from the bus reserve.

• A proposition to collect $124,808 for Yates Community Library, which is up 4.7 percent or $5,625 from $119,183 in 2022-23.

• Election of a member of the Board of Education. Jerod Thurber, a current member, is the only candidate for a three-year term.

Isaac Despard, a sophomore in Jeff Qamoos’s class, shows a plastic pilot helmet he designed and built. Despard used an Ender 3-D printer to make the pieces for the helmet which he modelled after one in the video game Titanfall.