Author: admin

The vote totals for the recent school budget and board seats were:

Budget Proposition to approve $16,849,365 budget for 2019-2020:
Yes – 145
No – 16

Bus Proposition to approve $258,500 to purchase a 65-passenger bus and a 41-passenger bus and a van:
Yes – 143
No – 18

Board Of Education Election (Top 2 candidates)

Carrianne Arquette: 147 votes – Winner 3 year term
Roxanne Waters: 128 votes – Winner 3 year term

School enrollment figures for school districts across the state were updated recently for the 2017-2018 school year (last year) and the Whitehall School District’s total enrollment fell to 708 students. This was a drop of 50 students from the 758 enrolled during the 2016-2017 year.

The complete enrollment figures for 2017-2018 school year can be found here.

I have been tracking and reporting on the enrollment for a number of years. To put this number of 708 students into historical context I have updated my yearly enrollment chart below:

School Year	04-05	05-06	06-07	07-08	08-09	09-10	10-11	11-12	12-13
Students	885	860	858	845	815	779	753	742	755
School Year	13-14	14-15	15-16	16-17	17-18
Students	757	736	736	758	708

Total overall enrollment is now down 20% since the 2004-2005 school year. While there was a short-lived increase in students between 2012 and 2017, the trend is quite persistent. The district has now reached the lowest enrollment since I have been tracking this.

During this time, local property taxes have increased every year. The Board of Education has not passed on any savings from this plummeting enrollment to the local taxpayers, in spite of increased state aid during the same time period.

For far too long this has not been discussed in planning for the district. A large building campaign has begun and another year of tax increases is being voted on. Now is the time to start planning for more enrollment decreases because that has been the trend for the last 14 years.

The deadline for submitting petitions to run for the Whitehall School board has passed. The two incumbents, who have their terms expiring, both submitted petitions to seek three year terms.

Carrianne Arquette and Roxanne Waters are the only two candidates who will have their names on the ballot. This does not prevent a write-in candidate from running, but as of this time, only two candidates will be running for the two open seats. The election will be held on Tuesday, May 21st.

The voters will also vote on the district’s proposed $16,894,365 budget.

At the regular April meeting, the Whitehall school board presented the 2019 -2020 school budget that will go before the voters in May. The board has adopted a total budget of $16,894,365 which is $375,266 over this years budget. Because the budget relies on $316,000 taken from reserves, the total tax levy increase is only .51 percent. The district is anticipating a 2.94 percent increase in state aid.

The district has $6.6 million in reserve funds. $4.8 of which are intended to be used for an upcoming building project that has already been approved by the voters.

Residents of the district can vote on the budget, Tuesday, May 21st.