Last year, with mail-in ballots, well over 7,000 people voted in the Guilderland school elections. On Tuesday, numbers returned to under 2,600.

The $104,979,570 budget carries a 1.89-percent increase in spending over the current year’s budget and will result in a 1.28-percent tax levy increase, which is at the district’s levy limit.

GUILDERLAND — Community Caregivers is working with medical students and social-work students at area colleges and universities to help seniors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The students receive academic “service learning” credit for their efforts.

“Because we were able to expand crisis stabilization, we actually improved the care for patients,” said Louis Filhour, chief executive officer for Better Health for Northeast New York. “We decreased and prevented them going to the emergency room. We prevented them from being admitted. We provided the services when they were needed and we helped to expand those hours.”

New York State’s guidance, just like the CDC guidance, is still requiring masks and social distancing in schools serving pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students; on public transit, in homeless shelters, in correctional facilities, in nursing homes, and in health-care settings. Unvaccinated individuals, under both CDC and state guidance, must wear masks in all public settings.

Senator Michelle Hinchey lauded the $1.4 billion increase in state aid for education in this year’s budget, bringing the total to $29.5 billion, which for Guilderland meant a jump in state aid of $2.1 million to $27.2 million. About a quarter of Guilderland’s $105 million proposed budget for next year is funded by state aid.

The Hunger Games have given way to “a game of finding folks looking for a vaccine, doing a lot of education, doing a lot of engagement.”

“Once you are fully vaccinated … you do not need to quarantine,” said Albany County Health Commissioner Elizabeth Whalen.

Incumbents Herb Hennings and Philip Metzger are challenged by Michael Hawrylchak, Vanessa Threatte, Antonio Rivera, and Norina Melita.

The Big Eye Gallery is hosting an event on Saturday, May 15, when the public can meet artists who were invited to take a challenge called Paint and Switch.

 On Wednesday night, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced, “Today the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents 12 to 15 years of age. That decision followed a thorough review of data and FDA’s expansion of the emergency use authorization for this vaccine earlier this week.” He authorized providers to expand eligibility immediately.