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.
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