Laura Wright casts a ballot in the Saranac Lake Central School District budget vote and election on Tuesday. Behind her, not pictured, is Alexander, 5, who attended a vote for his first time. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Voters in the Saranac Lake Central School District passed a $38.1 million budget for the coming year by a wide margin on Tuesday and reelected school board Chair Mark Farmer and Member Zachary Randolph, who were running uncontested.

There were a total of 519 voters in the election.

Voters also approved propositions to purchase buses, continue transportation and capital improvement reserve funds and fund the public library by similar margins as the budget.

Farmer and Randolph were the only candidates on the ballot for two open board seats. Each term lasts for three years. Farmer gathered 445 votes and Randolph received 441 votes. There were 15 write-in votes, including one for “Mickey Mouse.”

The budget passed 435-83 with 83.98% of the vote, according to unofficial results.

SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox said she always worries about the budget passing, and on Tuesday night felt relieved and thankful for the support of the community. This was a “tough budget” for her, with reductions in staff as the district’s enrollment shrinks. Next year will be her final budget before she retires, and she is already anticipating it to be a difficult one.

“The federal and state governments are not showing me quietly to the door,” she said.

There were 488 voters on Election Day, 28 absentee voters, five early voters and one affidavit vote.

The budget carries a $25.5 million tax levy, $1,084,343 more than the current year, a 4.44% increase — but exactly at the tax cap.

The tax levy makes up 68% of the district’s revenue, state and federal aid make up 27%, money from the district reserves makes up 4% and a fractional 1% comes from other sources.

The tax rate is projected to be $7.93 per $1,000 in assessed value, 34 cents more than last year. This means a property assessed at $300,000 would pay $2,379 in taxes next year, $102 more than last year.

Though the tax levy has gone up each year, the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value has decreased by almost $2 over the past five years.

The budget carries some staff layoffs and accounts for potential federal aid cuts.

Fox said they are eliminating around 11 positions through attrition — nine from retirements and two from resignations. Because other staff are shifting into new roles, the reductions will result in three potential layoffs. These three positions are an elementary educator, a special educator and a reading specialist.

These cuts maintain the district’s one-to-seven staff-to-student ratio and don’t require any programming cuts.

SLCSD was expecting $120,000 more in state aid than last year. Fox said they got $30,000 more than they expected, but their dental insurance also came in $26,000 higher than expected.

Fox’s salary gets a $6,000 increase in this budget, bringing it to $183,032. Fox said this is standard for a superintendent’s raise after 12 years in the position.

More detailed articles on SLCSD’s budget process can be found at tinyurl.com/5ept6av6 and tinyurl.com/52rutcuw.

To read more about the budget specifics on the district website, go to tinyurl.com/53haf7mu.

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Propositions

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One proposition authorizes the district to spend up to $324,000 from its Transportation Reserve Fund to purchase two buses. This passed with 86.71% of the vote.

Two propositions continue the district’s capital reserve funds for transportation and capital improvements. These do not put additional money into the funds, but allow them to continue, since the funds have a 10-year lifespan. The transportation fund proposition passed with 86.49% of the vote and the capital improvement fund proposition passed with 84.11% of the vote.

There is currently $1,848,232 in the transportation fund and $1,970,648 in the capital improvement fund.

The transportation fund is what the district pulls from to purchase the buses from the first proposition, as well as other transportation needs. The capital improvement fund is used for things like construction, technology, equipment, fields, infrastructure and parking lots.

These reserves are partially funded by leftover money from each year’s budget.

The final proposition authorizes the district to levy a $532,370 tax to fund the Saranac Lake Free Library. School districts collect tax money for public libraries. This passed with 84.94% of the vote.