Children attending daycare and pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in New York state must receive all required doses of vaccines to attend or remain in school.
The founder of The Caring Closet, Amanda Beedle, and a member of its board of directors, Shannon Clegg, spoke to the school board about the importance of the charitable endeavor that provides free hygiene products to students who need them.
With its new $16.7 million assessment, the Northeastern Industrial Park will pay about $310,000 in Voorheesville Central School District taxes each year, down from $522,000 in annual tax payments.
“We did have a little bit of a dip in proficiency level from pre-pandemic,” said Rachel Anderson of Guilderland students’ test scores. This was typical across the state and nation.
The Berne-Knox-Westerlo board members have overseen a period of the district’s history that, between overfunding from the state and the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout, has been as auspicious as it has been challenging.
Superintendent Timothy Mundell told The Enterprise this week that the skills the district learned from the National Dropout Prevention Center’s trauma-skills institute will help give Berne-Knox-Westerlo students structure, organization, and resilience as they balance personal hardships with their potential for achievement.
Superintendent Marie Wiles concluded of the 2023-24 budget, “On some levels, this was a fortunate year that we were able to maintain everything that we have been doing and lower the class sizes in the middle school, which was a huge priority, and begin to transition items that were funded by our federal dollars into he general fund. So I think we’re in a very good spot.”
If approved, next year’s Voorheesville Central School District budget would represent a 6.9-percent increase over this year and a 2.5-percent increase in the property-tax levy.
Guilderland Superintendent Marie Wiles noted that currently Guilderland is allotted $5,400 for each pre-kindergarten student, “which doesn’t begin to cover the cost for the community-based partners that we have.” She went on, “They feel and rightfully so — and were pleased to continue to work with us — that they can actually do better just by being independent and getting self pay from parents who can afford it.”
