On Tuesday, May 20, voters in school districts across the state will determine the fate of budgets for the 2025-26 school year, and will elect trustees for their board of education. Hudson Valley One sent a brief questionnaire to the candidate in the New Paltz Central School District (NPCSD) where there are three open seats; with just one candidate submitting a petition. The other two seats can be filled by write-in votes, provided the winners are qualified and agree to serve.\
Jason Clark (incumbent)
Occupation: Contractor
Prior school board experience: Two years on the New Paltz School Board
Do you have children in the district: Yes
What made you want to run for school board:
As a New Paltz alumni, I wanted to give back to the school and the community.
What are the most pressing issues facing the school district?
1. Our demographic is changing, student enrollment has decreased substantially, as the cost of housing has increased beyond the scope of affordability for many families.
2. Operational costs are challenging with unpredictable health insurance increases, keeping up with basic infrastructure, worthwhile but expensive endeavors such as the EV bus initiative, and questions about federal funding.
3. Sound policy concerning rapid advancement of technology such as AI and a public school’s role in managing cell phone use and social media use.
4. Nationally, our lowest performing students are falling behind after making steady gains through the 2000’s. What has changed and how can we do better.
Voters to decide on school budget on May 20
Voters across New York State will also head to the polls on Tuesday, May 20 to have their say on local school district budgets for the 2025-26 school year, along with electing trustees to their boards of education, and deciding the fate of any other ballot proposals. Due to the lateness of the New York State budget, school districts were left guessing as to whether their state aid figures would rise or fall based upon Gov. Kathy Hochul’s initial proposal; unlike in years past, the state legislature largely accepted the governor’s proposal, making few changes to her proposed state aid runs. But some districts are still feeling the pinch.
New Paltz Central School District
Voting location: New Paltz High School gymnasium
Voting hours: 7 a.m. – 9 p.m.
The NPCSD will present a budget of $76,095,330 for the 2025-26 school year, which comes with an overall 4.35 percent tax levy increase.
During a budget hearing last week, superintendent Stephen Gratto said the district had to overcome a significantly low state aid package in preparing the spending plan.
“A $2 million (tax increase) is significant,” he said. “Our state aid went up by only $90,000, which was a .5 percent increase. The state is not keeping up with the expenses that we’re experiencing as a district, which is one of the big problems that we face, as well as one of the big problems that all the (school districts) in the state, and probably around the country face as well.”
Among the expenses in the budget proposal are purchases of two 65-passenger buses (combined $320,532), one 28-29 passenger bus ($87,389), and a Chevrolet Suburban ($72,079) for a total cost of $480,000.
Also included are the costs of an unarmed security guard primarily stationed at the high school ($51,840), a full time athletic trainer ($112,000), stipend for continuing education coordinator ($3,000), BOCES lease at iPark87 ($184,800), summer work previously covered by federal American Rescue Plan funding ($68,435).
Reductions to cover the cost of the athletic trainer include the elimination of planned wellness center upgrades, reduction in continuing education stipend, cutting back on furniture replacement, reduction in musical instrument replacement, money for an itinerant athletic trainer, various software and office supplies, special ed consultants and abandoning the purchase of a new $50,000 football field scoreboard.
The district also trimmed the budget in other areas, including a full-time middle school social studies position, a full time district integrated technology position, a full-time high school ELA position, and will leave two vacant elementary special education positions unfilled. The equivalent of cutting 4.4 total full time positions, including three current employees, saved the district $813,551 in salaries and benefits.
Elsewhere they’ve seen money come in from renting the middle school to BOCES for summer school ($40,000) and a Medicaid reimbursement ($100,000). The budget also includes the use of $2,354,000 of its $8,590,523 fund balance to reduce the local tax impact. Of that total, $1.9 million comes out of unrestricted fund balance, $300,000 from the retirement reserve fund, and $154,000 of the remaining 2015 middle school capital project funds.
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