LAKE PLACID — Voters in the Lake Placid Central School District passed a $23.1 million budget for the coming school year by a wide margin on Tuesday, and elected two new board members — Christopher Fadden, who was on the ballot, and Stephanie Murphy, who was a write-in candidate.

According to unofficial results, with 597 total voters, the budget passed with 80.56% of the vote, 481-104.

The budget carries an $18,079,462, tax levy, which is a 1.82% increase from last year and $127,721 below the 2.53% tax cap.

This puts the estimated tax rate at $5.28 per $1,000 in assessed value for both Wilmington and North Elba, an increase of about 9 cents from last year. This means a property with a value of $300,000 would pay about $1,585 in school district taxes in 2025-26.

Some costs are expected to rise this coming year, and the district plans to use about $1.2 million from its appropriated fund balance to meet this need, Assistant Superintendent Dana Wood explained. Some of that balance was used to keep the taxes lower than the district is technically allowed to levy for this coming year.

This budget is a 3.13% increase in spending from the past fiscal year.

Among the costs that are increasing for the coming school year is health insurance, which is increasing by around 12% and will cost LPCSD about an extra $600,000. This increase applies to all 10 districts in the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES consortium. The overall cost for BOCES is also going up a little more than 10% for the coming year, according to Wood.

A more detailed article on LPCSD’s budget and propositions can be found at tinyurl.com/rdenvyhr.

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Board election

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Board of Education Vice President Ronald Briggs and Member Colleen Skufca’s terms end in June. Skufca chose not to run again. Although Briggs did not initially submit a petition, he later announced a write-in campaign. Murphy also publicized a write-in campaign on social media.

Christopher Fadden, who was on the only name on the ballot, got the most votes with 327.

Stephanie Murphy, who also ran a write-in campaign, was close behind with 309 votes.

Briggs brought in 176 write-in votes.

There were 20 write-in votes.

The terms for the newly elected board members will start July 1.

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Propositions

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Voters approved the creation of a new capital reserve account 480-102.

This account will be used for the sole purpose of purchasing buses and other school vehicles. This will mean setting aside an amount of up to $1 million from surplus funds in an account that can be open for 10 years.

Voters also approved a $17,369 tax levy to fund the Wilmington E. M. Cooper Memorial Public Library 528-46. This levy is unchanged from last year.