ST. REGIS FALLS — The St. Regis Falls Central School District’s $9.9 million proposed 2024-25 budget was narrowly rejected by voters Tuesday in a 107-120 vote, with “no” votes making up a slim 52.8% majority. Voters also rejected one of two ballot propositions, elected a write-in candidate and an incumbent to the school board and tied the race for a third board seat.

St. Regis Falls was one of 10 districts statewide that failed to pass a budget Tuesday. When a budget is rejected by voters, school districts can choose to revert to a contingency budget with no tax levy increase, take a new budget proposal to voters or ask voters to vote again on the same budget. Whatever a district chooses, it must have a budget in place by July 1. New York’s designated revote day is June 18, though St. Regis Falls has not yet announced if it intends to call for a budget revote.

A school board revote will be necessary for the district, however, as incumbent school board president Michelle Brockway tied with write-in candidate Rick Yaddow.

The $9,948,815 proposed budget would have decreased spending by $287,168, or 2.81%, from this year’s $9.6 million budget. Despite decreased proposed expenditures, tax rates were set to go up in the district. Around one-third of the budget would’ve been funded by taxes. The proposed budget carried a tax levy of $3,144,467, an increase of 2.12% over this year’s levy — it would have met the state-imposed tax cap for the district. The district serves students from five different towns, all with different school tax rates. Under the proposed budget, tax rates would’ve increased by 2.15% in each town.

A total of 227 votes were cast in this year’s election. The district did not have an exact number of eligible voters in the district available on Wednesday, but turnout was significantly higher than last year, when only 130 ballots were cast.

A message from board president Brockway in the district’s 2024-25 budget newsletter said that the board “had to make some very painful decisions” due to the school’s $1.3 million deficit. It is unclear what caused this deficit; Budget documents did not go into detail and district Superintendent Nicole Eschler could not be reached for comment by deadline Wednesday. Districts around the region, in general, faced a tough budget year because of the end of federal coronavirus aid and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s ultimately unsuccessful proposal to change the way state foundation aid is calculated.

Among cuts in the proposed budget included several already-vacant positions in the district, including a technology integration specialist, intervention teacher, a bus driver, human resources director, substitute teacher coordinator and social media coordinator. It also eliminated funding for field trips not funded completely by grants and integrated Pre-K. It is unclear from budget documents what changes would be made to the Pre-K program; A Pre-K teacher position is still funded in the district’s itemized proposed budget, though the program itself is not.

The proposed budget also eliminated one of two school principal positions. Last November, Middle-High School Principal Danielle Emburey and Elementary School Principal Wendie Boucher were both fired on the same day. The school board and district superintendent declined to publicly state a reason for the firings. The positions have remained unfilled since and would be consolidated next year under the proposed budget. The district is currently accepting applications for a K-12 school principal with a salary range of $80,000 to $110,000. According to budget documents, the school principals’ salaries for 2023-24 were $47,700 and $47,250. It is unclear which principal position corresponds to which salary.

The budget also reduced — though it did not completely eliminate — printing costs, substitutes, software subscriptions, teaching assistant positions and overtime payments for salaried staff, which is typically granted in school districts when staff take on extra responsibilities like advising or chaperoning.

Voters rejected 126-104 a proposition that would’ve authorized the district to purchase a school bus and a van, but approved a second proposition 116-113 that authorized the district to establish a $375,000 capital reserve fund. A capital reserve fund is similar to a savings account, though the use of the funds can only be granted via voter approval in a future referendum. When districts use capital reserve funds to fund capital projects, the state may chip in more aid for that particular project.

Maggie Engels was reelected to the school board with 169 votes, while write-in candidate Lisa Jimenez was elected with 113 votes. Jimenez announced her candidacy on May 15, saying on Facebook that she was concerned about “the drastic downfall of our school.” Jimenez, a 1984 graduate of the district, is the parent of four St. Regis Falls graduates and retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2016 after a 25-year-long career.

The third seat on the school board tied at 76 votes between incumbent board president Brockway and write-in candidate Yaddow. Yaddow announced his candidacy on May 10 via Facebook.