The $23 million proposed Berne-Knox-Westerlo budget for 2019-20, adopted by the school board on Monday, will trigger a half-of-1-percent tax-levy increase. While some argued there should be no tax increase at all, others said that the budget was “baseline” and “uncomfortably tight” and would have been better with a slightly higher increase.

BERNE — Jane Snyder, a licensed practical nurse who has been serving the Berne-Knox-Westerlo area for 45 years, is retiring.

“Jane has been a trusted, respected, and loved member of our practice and for the entire community, so we want to celebrate her,” said Dr. Kristin Mack in an email to The Enterprise.

Penny Shaw, along with her husband, Rich Bartley, is directing a new generation of Comedy Kids in a new version of Shaw’s play “Not Yer Av’rage Fairytale.”

A Berne-Knox-Westerlo parent said that she is out of options to place her child in after-school childcare after he was removed from a YMCA program at BKW. She says that her son was mistreated by staff there, while the program officials say that the program could not provide the level of care he needed.

“This was an ACE,” Superintendent Timothy Mundell said, referring to an adverse childhood experience.

Just over half of the seventh-graders surveyed at Berne-Knox-Westerlo reported having some sort of trauma, according to the school’s social worker, who described how the school has been addressing this.

BKW students in Future Farmers of America described a trip involving stops at dairy and swine farms, grain processors, and stops at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

Berne-Knox-Westerlo has already put into place two major initiatives that should help uncouple the dilemma at the heart of the paradox on special education.

Berne-Knox-Westerlo Superintendent Timothy Mundell said that  school board members hope that Board President Matthew Tedeschi will help to represent rural schools in Albany County.

Berne-Knox-Westerlo students with disabilities who were tested were among the lowest 10-percent in their group for English, math, and science, and were also among the lowest 10-percent for growth in English and math, according to a spokeswoman for the State Education Department.