On Tuesday, May 21, the Ithaca City School District held its annual election to pick three members of the Ithaca School Board and to vote on three propositions. Ithaca holds school-related elections on a date separate from national or state office elections to prevent the outcome from being swept up in national political issues.
Prior to the election, the school board was required to write an annual budget and to propose a tax rate sufficient to fund the budget. Total revenue from the school tax also depends upon the assessed valuation of each property, which have risen dramatically this year. The combination of rising property values and a large proposed increase in the tax rate, led to a voter revolt with Proposition #1 – approval of the budget failing to pass by a two-to-one margin, 2,059 yes to 4,916 no.
This is very rare in Ithaca, whose voters have historically approved very large budget increases.
In addition, three critics of the budget, Emily Workman: 4,393 votes; Adam Krantweiss, Ph.D.: 3,953 votes; and Todd Fox: 2,805 votes; were elected to the School Board.
Proposition #2, which would authorize the purchase of low-emission school buses to replace some of the diesel-fuelled buses, lost by 2,980 to 3,830.
Proposition #3, which would approve a $125 million cap on the district’s 10-year capital projects budget, lost by 3,014 to 3,919.
The next step is for the School Board to revise its budget (perhaps with staff cuts) and submit it to the voters on June 18.
Meanwhile, Boynton Middle School and DeWitt Middle School have been designated as ”targeted support and improvement” by the New York State Dept. of Education. They join Enfield and Beverly J. Martin Elementary schools that lost their good standing status last year. New York singled out these schools based upon Black and economically disadvantaged student performance.
