MALONE — A local school board voted last week to adopt the district’s proposed budget and voters will have a chance to weigh in on the proposal when they head to the polls on Tuesday, May 19.
Malone Central School District is proposing a spending plan of $74,406,226 for the 2026-27 school year with the budget proposal representing an increase in spending of $1,751,585 or 2.41% over the current year’s budget.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 5 at Franklin Academy.
Malone Central’s projected tax levy is $15,107,719, a tax levy increase of $381,768 or 2.59% over last year’s budget, according to Brandon J. Pelkey, the school district’s superintendent, who said the proposed budget is at but not over the tax cap.
The school district’s spending plan is broken down between administrative, capital and program expenses.
Seventy-four percent of the budget is made up of program costs which total $55,066,463, an increase of $2,597,491 over last year’s budget, according to budget documents.
The rest of the budget is split between capital and administrative costs, at $11,924,189 and $7,415,574 respectively.
Capital costs are down $1,281,313 from last year’s budget while administrative costs are up by $435,405, according to budget documents.
Pelkey said multiple factors led to the increase in this year’s proposed budget.
“At the end of the day it’s a number of things, utilities, contracts, service providers, it’s a little bit of everything, it’s just where we are at,” he told the Telegram, “Probably the biggest things are contractual obligations and services, equipment for maintenance or bus transportation, the cost of that has gone up, it’s a little bit of everything, honestly.”
Pelkey said no staff layoffs are included in the proposed budget and the hope is through attrition there could be some savings moving forward.
According to Pelkey, the district used more fund balance in the budget than last year when $3.5 million was utilized.
Pelkey said $4.5 million of fund balance was put towards the proposed budget.
School board seats
In addition to the budget vote on May 19, voters in Malone Central will fill three seats on the district’s board of education.
According to Bryn Fefee, Malone Central’s district clerk, two of the positions up for vote in May are for five-year terms and one of the seats is for a three-year term on the school board.
Fefee said the seat with a three-year term formally was held by Terrence C. Maguire who resigned from the school board after being elected Malone town supervisor last year.
Of the three candidates the one with the lowest number of votes in May’s election will serve out the three-year term on the school board while the contest’s top two candidates will serve full terms, according to Fefee.
This year’s budget vote in Malone is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, from noon to 8 p.m., in the gym lobby of Franklin Academy.
Also on the ballot will be a question on a proposed capital project, totaling $13 million, and a bus proposition measure.
As a result of building aid from the state, the proposed capital project will have no impact on school taxes in the district, according to Pelkey.