Port Jervis School District Budget Up 9 Percent Without Tax Levy Hike

Hamilton Bicentennial Elementary School in Cuddebackville on Oct. 9, 2022. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

The Port Jervis City School District is poised to take on a significantly larger spending plan next year without raising the tax levy or dipping into the fund balance, according to a Feb. 16 budget presentation.

The budget is proposed to be close to $90 million, up from $82 million in the current year, with the property tax levy remaining flat at $29 million.

It’s the biggest year-over-year budget increase the district has seen in the past decade, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business John Timm.

The budget bump is largely due to a historic influx of federal and state aid, which is projected to hit more than $58 million next school year.

At the state level, foundation aid will continue to rise sharply in the coming year—as it has been for the past two years—before it levels off in 2024, as a direct result of a lawsuit.

Created in 2007, the foundation aid formula requires the consideration of school district income levels in state funding distribution. However, the state government hadn’t fully funded the program until a lawsuit by New Yorkers for Students’ Educational Rights compelled it to do so.

The settlement of the lawsuit created a sharp increase of foundation aid money into low-income school districts over a period of three years, with next year being the last.

Next year is also the last year for school districts to spend federal COVID-19 aid, which, unlike the state foundation aid, will disappear afterward.

Superintendent John Bell said during the budget presentation that the district has been strategic in using the historic influx, particularly the one-time federal COVID-19 aid.

“We don’t want to spend them on recurring expenses. Otherwise, you’ll get a huge hole in the budget in the following year and have astronomical tax increases,” he said.

Rather, the district has a plan in place to use it on one-time expenses, such as construction projects, new textbooks that might last 10 years, and new technologies.

He added that as the state foundation aid levels off and federal funding dries up, future budgets will not see increases as big as this year’s.

A second presentation about expenses and a budget workshop are scheduled for March 28.

The school board will adopt a budget on April 20, and a public hearing is planned for May 2.

Voters can register at the school district office on Pike Street on May 1.

May 16 is the election day for both the budget and school board candidates.