Spencerport approves $58 million proposed school budget

The Spencerport Central School District Board of Education unanimously approved on Tuesday, April 12 a $58,130,441 school budget for the 2005-06 school year that will go before district voters on May 17. The new budget calls for an estimated 2.12 percent tax rate increase.

Key among the initiatives for the coming year is the implementation of full-day kindergarten, which will add an estimated $412,800 in first-year costs. A state aid conversion incentive of $603,751 to encourage full-day kindergarten will pay for all the initial start-up costs and provide an additional $190,951 to reduce the amount the district needs to raise in the tax levy.

The budget represents an estimated 5.06 percent increase in expenditures, but the tax rate increase is lower because of increased assessments, new construction within the district and an increase in state aid. Last year's budget of $55,328,217 actually led to a nearly one percent decrease in the tax rate, the first decrease in a decade.

In addition to the full-day kindergarten initiative, the district will complete its planned phase-in of the School-wide Enrichment program in which enrichment specialists work with faculty to create lessons that both increase the rigor of classroom instruction and inspire children at all academic levels. The budget calls for adding a SWE specialist at the high school to join the four other specialists who serve the other schools.

The district also will add a technology integration teacher to work with teachers on implementing the district's existing technology, such as computers, into their classroom curricula. Two positions, a second school nurse and a reading teacher, will be added at Cosgrove Middle School, in large part to address needs created by the increased student population when the sixth grade was moved to the middle school.

Voters will go to the polls on May 17 to vote on the budget and on candidates for three seats on the Board of Education. Polls will be open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the district Administration Building, 71 Lyell Avenue; Munn Elementary School, 2333 Manitou Road and Taylor Elementary School, 399 Ogden Parma Townline Road. All district residents who are U.S. citizens and 18 and over may vote.