The Chautauqua County Board of Elections reports that all 18 districts in the county saw their budgets approved by voters. In addition, every district that had additional propositions (most dealing with borrowing for bus/transportation purchases) were also approved.

Every district in the county also held a school board election, with most of them being uncontested. However, in Jamestown four candidates ran for two board seats – with incumbent board member Patrick Slagle gaining the largest number of votes to secure his reelection. In addition, former board member Joe Pawelski, who ran as a last-minute write-in candidate, received the second highest number of votes.

More than 960 residents came out to vote in the Jamestown school election, with Slagle picking up 851 votes and Pawelski gaining 638. Coming in third was Jeffrey Yeates with 258 and Todd Rushforth finished fourth with 198.

Current school board president Joe DiMaio also had his name on the ballet but said that he had decided against seeking another term on the board. Despite his announcement he still received 101 votes.

The $79.18 million Jamestown school budget was approved 757 to 207 while the $930,000 transportation proposition was approved 772 to 191.

All results from the election are unofficial until the canvass of votes, taking place Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Board Room at 197 Martin Road. The board will also hold a regular meeting as well.

The proposed $79.18 million spending plan includes a tax cut equal to the amount that the tax levy was raised for the current school year year. In addition, there will be no layoffs or elimination of positions – which is the first time the district hasn’t been forced to make cuts since the 2008-09 school year.

In addition to tonight’s budget presentation, voters can also review the budget online at www.jamestownpublicschools.org. Residents without Internet access can review the proposed budget at the Superintendent’s Office at 197 Martin Road during regular business hours (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), as well as at all Jamestown schools’ main offices, and the Prendergast Library.

The 2016-17 School Budget Vote and School Board Elections will be held on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. There are two Board of Education seats, each for a three-year term, on the ballot.  The candidates are current board member and board president Joe DiMaio, current board member Patrick Slagle, city resident Todd Rushforth and city resident Jeffrey Yeates.

The election will be conducted next Tuesday from noon to 9 p.m. Voters unsure of their correct polling places can call the District Clerk at 483-4420.

Four individuals have submitted petitions to run for the two seats that are up for election for this year’s election. The candidates are current board member and board president Joe DiMaio, current board member Patrick Slagle, city resident Todd Rushforth and city resident Jeffrey Yeates.

On May 17 voters will elect two of the four to serve three-year terms on the school board as well as the 2016-17 budget.

All city residents 18 and older are eligible to vote in the election. School district residents registered to vote with the Chautauqua County Board of Elections are also eligible to vote in the school board election.  If a person is not registered to vote, the District Clerk is available to register any eligible voter between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. any weekday through May 10, 2016 in the Administration Building, 197 Martin Road, Jamestown, New York.

Applications are also available for Absentee Voting.  The application forms and instructions may be obtained in the Superintendent’s Office. Any questions about the Board of Education petition process, voter registration or absentee voting applications can be directed to 483-4420.

The 2016-17 Popular Budget will be available for public review in the Superintendent’s Office, 197 Martin Road or on the JPS website (www.jamestownpublicschools.org) under the button on the home page “2016-17 Budget Information” beginning on May 3, 2016.

A budget hearing and meet the candidate forum will also take place on May 10.  The budget and school board vote is May 17.

The Jamestown School Board approved the 2016-17 budget during its April 19, 2016 board meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board has approved a 2016-17 budget totaling $79.18 million. The budget includes a tax cut equal to the amount that it was raised for the current budget year. In addition, there will be no layoffs or elimination of positions – which is the first time the district hasn’t been forced to make cuts since the 2008-09 school year.

77.8 percent of the budget is covered by state aid, while 20.4 percent comes from school taxes. The board voted 7 to 0 on the spending plan.

School Superintendent Tim Mains said the budget is important for a number of reasons.

“What the board adopted tonight was a $79 million budget that preserves every staff position, protects all programs, basically lowers taxes – it gives back the tax increase that was raised last year, and protects our reserves and fund balance and allows us to continue to grow that. So they took action that was good for the district,” Mains said following the meeting.

Board president Joe DiMaio said that for the first time in several years, the board was somewhat satisfied with the end result of the budget process.

“This has been the most enjoyable budget in recent years, in terms of having budget sessions in which [the administration] was able to come to us and do such a great job of showing us where everything went. So we didn’t have to say ‘well, this needs to go here,’ or ‘we need to move more funding there,'” DiMaio said. “You saw that, really, tonight’s questions were basically really only comments on the budget.”

A public hearing on the Budget will take place on May 10.  Copies of the spending plan will also be made available at the school district website.  It will go up for a public vote on May 17.

Tim Mains goes over the latest 2016-17 budget numbers for the Jamestown School District during its April 5 meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board has approved a tax reduction for the 2016-17 budget.

Tuesday night the board voted to reduce next year’s tax levy by $219,275, the amount that was raised for the current budget year.

The vote on the decrease was 6 to 1, with board member Nina Karbacka voting no. Karbacka felt that given the struggle the district is facing with providing a sound education for all students, the money would be better used toward programming.

“Our children need all forms of support. In staffing. In administration, In programs,” Karbacka explained. “And it’s a very small  amount per household, yet that amount of money from every household can do some exciting things within the district.”

The move comes following an updated budget presentation by superintendent Tim Mains (pictured) that showed the district has $248,589 in additional state funding that will be applied to next year’s budget. Another $650,000 in additional state aid will be used to restore moneys taken out of the district’s reserves and fund balance to help balance the district’s initial budget, presented before the final state aid totals were known. Total spending for the proposed budget that was presented on Tuesday is now $79,390,513 – an increase of $1,452,242 from the current year’s spending plan.

Mains will present some final budget options to the school board on Tuesday, April 19. He said that will primarily involve what to do with the remaining $30,000 in additional state funding, adding that it’s unlikely the district will use any money from its fund balance for additional programming.

“I’ve been trying to build a fund balance,” Mains said. “The state will allow us to have up to a four percent fund balance. If we don’t spend anything in this budget out of fund balance, then our projections for the end of they [current] school school year is a little over three percent. I feel like we ought to steadily have that four percent amount. If we have more than four percent, then I’m very comfortable in saying yes, let’s commit that and lets spend that.”

One of the concerns brought forward by Mains and echoed by the school board during its March 10 meeting was the low fund balance the district has maintained in recent years. That also caught the eye of the state comptroller, who cautioned that the district needs to restore its fund balance to relieve fiscal stress.

Following the final budget adjustments that will be presented on April 19, the board will likely act on the final budget. The budget deadline for the school board is Friday, April 22.

Once approved by the board, the budget will then be presented to the public for review during a budget hearing on May 10. The budget vote, along with school board election, is scheduled for May 17.

Jamestown School Superintendent Tim Mains presents the tentative 2016-17 budget during the school board’s March 10, 2016 meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The 2016-17 budget for the Jamestown School District will not have a tax levy increase and will not see any teacher layoffs.

That from Jamestown school superintendent Tim Mains, who joined district finance director Vern Connors Thursday night in presenting the preliminary numbers for next year’s school budget.

Mains said there were a couple of factors that allowed administration to bring forward a tentative budget that didn’t have a tax increase or call for layoffs.

“We certainly have some additional revenues from the state, which are helpful,” Mains said. “We also have some huge reductions in what we have to pay in retiree benefits. The very large amounts we had to pay dropped dramatically and that helped us a lot. And of course, all the cuts we’ve absorbed over the past few years, those savings carry forward.”

Total spending for the tentative budget is $79.14 million – a $1.45 million increase (1.9 percent) over the current year’s budget.

Much of the increase will be covered by additional state school aid, which will be at least $1.14 million more than the current year’s funding. But that amount could be more, depending on whether or not state lawmakers plan to increase education aid in the state budget, which is still being worked on in Albany.

The tentative revenues and expenditures for the 2016-17 Jamestown School Budget, as presented by school administration on Thursday, March 10, 2016.

The state spending plan is expected to be completed by April 1, giving Jamestown and other districts the final piece of information they’ll need before completing their spending plan.

One of the concerns brought forward by Mains and echoed by the school board is the low fund balance the district has maintained in recent years. That also caught the eye of the state comptroller, who cautioned that the district needs to restore its fund balance to relieve fiscal stress. As a result, Mains said he’s only proposing the use of $500,000 from the fund balance for next year’s budget.

“If you look at the past five years, we have slowly been decreasing the amount we pull from fund balance to apply to the next year’s budget. This year we are using the least amount that we’ve used in six our seven years. And we’re only proposing half a million dollars for next year. That’s designed to allow us to build the fund balance back up,” Mains explained.

Mains said he will present the budget’s impact on the districts recently completed 5-year Strategic Plan on March 29. An updated version of the budget, with final state aid totals, is also expected to be presented to the school board during its April 5 meeting.

The school board will likely finalize the budget by the end of April, with the budget voted scheduled to take place in Mid-May.

On Thursday night the school board held its second of two planning sessions to help identify priorities for the next school year. That information will now be used to craft the budget.

School superintendent Tim Mains and his staff plan to present a tentative budget to the school board on March 15. At that point the board will work with the school administration in finalizing the budget, which will likely be adopted by April 19. A public budget hearing is scheduled for May 10 and the budget vote is scheduled for May 17.

More information on the budget process is available at jamestownpublicschools.org.

The public is encouraged to attend these interactive planning sessions to learn more about the 2016-17 Budget and offer the Board of Education input into the budget process during the planning stages.

A second planning session is also scheduled for February 4 at 7 p.m.