HILLTOWNS — Continuing a trend that’s been ongoing for the past several years, Superintendent Timothy Mundell presented a budget to the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Board of Education this week that featured increased spending and lower taxes, which the board unanimously accepted. It will be voted on by district residents on May 17. 

The 2022-23 budget totals just under $24.7 million, up from this school year’s budget total of roughly $23.7 million — more than a 4 percent increase. Nearly half of that will be covered by state aid. Meanwhile, the district tax levy has been bumped down by half a percentage point for a total of $10.7 million.

The district’s state aid will be around $11.8 million, up from roughly $11.4 million last year, reflecting increases in transportation aid, Boards of Cooperative Educational Services aid, Medicaid, and other reimbursements, Mundell said at the March 28 meeting. 

Mundell pointed out earlier this year that, because the district has been experiencing declining enrollment, its aid package is maximized and won’t see the same jumps in state contributions as districts like Guilderland, which is anticipating an aid increase of around 11 percent, per Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed state budget. The deadline for the state legislature and the governor to agree on a final state budget is April 1.

Enrollment at BKW currently stands at 712 students, with average class sizes ranging from 14 to 20, Mundell told The Enterprise this week. 

The district lost one full-time employee this year and will not fill that post, but staffing levels have remained the same otherwise, Mundell said.

The bulk of the district’s spending increase is related to its debt service, which includes the bond taken out for the district’s recent renovations. This year will be the first year that the district makes a full payment, Mundell said, but the $1.4 million cost is offset by building aid and use of debt service reserves, so no portion of it will be felt by taxpayers.

Propositions and school board election

The most significant proposition to be voted on this year will be the district’s anticipated acquisition of 1772 Helderberg Trail, which is a mixed-use building containing a residence and office space. The office space is currently occupied by Hilltown Healthcare, the largest healthcare provider in the rural Hilltowns. The Hilltowns have just one other medical practice, a micro-practice in Westerlo run by Myria Emeny, M.D., a family medicine specialist.

At this week’s school board meeting, Mundell reiterated the district’s plans to turn the residential portion of the building into administrative offices so that it can move its employees out of the current business office, which is attached to the bus garage and is in poor condition, he said. 

“The business office was built in 1965 and although the steel frame might be in really good shape, the exterior sheeting is rotting from the ground up,” Mundell said. “We literally get running water and snow coming in underneath the walls of the offices. It’s becoming more and more of a health risk over there due to some rodent infestation and some deterioration in areas of that building.”

He also said that Hilltown Healthcare will be able to remain in the building indefinitely, but that there are a “variety of plans that the board’s considering” for a replacement should Nurse Practitioner Jill Martin, who founded the practice, leave. 

In February, Mundell told The Enterprise that the board was focused on the sorts of services that would be of broad community benefit, such as mental health services, a day-care, and an independently-managed after-school program. 

The board entered into a contract with the property owners — James and Kimberly Conklin — to purchase it at a price not to exceed $410,000, all of which would come from the district’s unappropriated fund balance. The district is currently in excess of the legal limit schools are allowed to have in their fund balance — 4 percent of the budget — as a result of the district operating $600,000 under budget last year, Mundell said. 

The board is also asking taxpayers to approve a $504,000 bus proposition, which would replace three 66-passenger buses and two smaller ones. The lion’s share of that would be covered by state aid.

Also, voters will elect two candidates to the board of education. The seats that will be open currently belong to board president Matthew Tedeschi and board member Rebecca Miller. District secretary Anne Farnam told The Enterprise that no nominating petitions were filed as of the morning of March 29.