GUILDERLAND — The school board last week approved using a total of $248,500 for back taxes owed to Stuyvesant Plaza for its Executive Park property.

Since 2014, Stuyvesant Plaza has been making the case that the property — 13.6 acres including a high-rise office building as well as two adjoining buildings and three other single-story buildings — is worth far less than the $17,419,600 that town of Guilderland has it assessed for.

According to grievance forms, Stuyvesant requested the full value be set at $12.5 million.

The property had been assessed at about $19 million; after Stuyvesant Plaza went through the grievance process in 2012, it was dropped to $17.4 million.

“We have been in litigation,” said Neil Sanders this week. He is the school district’s assistant superintendent for business. “The attorneys are still working out of court,” he said.

Although there is a “settlement in principle,” Sanders said, he could not reveal the amount as the deal has not been formally approved by both the town board and the school board.

The Guilderland school district is paying 70 percent of the costs for an outside appraisal and for legal fees and the town is paying the other 30 percent. This is based on the tax ratio; the school district receives more than twice as much in property taxes as does the town.

“It’s moving along,” Sanders said, “but it’s technically still in litigation.”

However, last Tuesday, Sanders was able to present to the school board a series of figures totaling $248,500, using unexpended funds from the current year’s budget: $38,500 came from summer borrowing, a precaution the district follows in case state aid payments are late, but it wasn’t needed this year; $60,000 because of a decrease in unemployment expenses; and $150,000 because of a drop in the cost of petroleum used to fuel buses.

The school district had set up a fund of $350,000 to be used in case it had to pay back taxes because of an assessment challenge. Sanders is pleased that this money won’t have to be touched to pay Stuyvesant Plaza since the board approved the plan he presented to get $248,500 from the current budget.

“We have another ongoing matter with Beverwyck in the town of Bethlehem,” he said of  the senior center that is challenging its assessment.

The school district is splitting the legal fees for that case with the town of Bethlehem, with the town paying 40 percent and the district paying the other 60 percent, again based on tax ratios, Sanders said.

Sanders concluded that it is prudent to “pay a settlement without tapping into the reserve fund.”