Community Corner
Tuckahoe Budget Passes With 63% of the Vote
Voters approve the budget by a comfortable margin.
Tuckahoe Common School District voters on Tuesday approved a $18.45 million budget, which constitutes a 4.52 percent increase in spending and a 3.00 percent bump in the tax levy.
The budget was adopted with 244 votes in favor and 142 against — 63.2 percent in favor.
The spending plan cuts five teaching assistant positions and one special education teacher. The Outdoor Education Program and several after school programs are also reduced or eliminated.
Constituting a large part of the budget increase is the amount the district is spending on tuitioning its ninth- through 12-graders to Southampton High School and Westhampton Beach High School. Compared to tuition costs for 2012-13, the district has budgeted $366,856 more, for a new total of $1,516,456. Overall, high school tuition amounts to 29.18 percent of the budget.
The district states that it saved $624,000 by agreeing to exclusively send the current eighth-grade class to Southampton High School for ninth grade. Tuckahoe and Southampton school districts are also in the midst of a merger feasibility study, which is taking a look at how the two districts could become one and what the benefits and detriments would be.
Voters, 254 to 118, approved contracts with the Southampton and Westhampton Beach school districts for the 2013-14 school year, for educating Tuckahoe School District’s ninth- through 12th-grade students.
By 252 to 127, voters approved $55,473 in spending on top of the budget for the district’s participation in the Southampton Youth Association and, by 243 to 134, $7,868 for participation with the Parrish Art Museum.
School Board Chairman Dr. Daniel Crough ran unopposed for re-election. He received 219 votes.
"The favorable vote, I think, represents a community commitment to citizenship," Crough said after the results were announced. "I’m proud of all the hard work that’s gone on in the school in the face of times or sacrifice."
He said the staff has continued to work harder and scores have continued to improve.
