6 key takeaways from school elections — from budget defeats to a school board race's tie

Diana Dombrowski and Nancy Cutler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
Updated ·3 min read

The unofficial results are in from Tuesday's school elections, with Westchester, Rockland and Putnam voters rejecting two budgets and one major proposition.

School districts faced a very different budgeting situation this year, with stubborn inflation, limited increases in state "foundation aid" and waning pandemic relief money.

Check your district: School election results for Westchester, Rockland, Putnam

Here is a closer look at key outcomes:

  • Chappaqua's voters overwhelmingly rejected the district's budget proposal, 2,006 to 1,128. The budget would have raised the tax levy by 2.99%, breaking the district's property-tax levy cap of 1.81%. Of the four districts in the Lower Hudson Valley seeking to break their caps, Chappaqua was the only one to see its budget rejected. The district needed a 60% super-majority but only got 40% support. The district previously noted that the 1.81% cap was lower than in past years, and that, in combination with a minimal increase in state aid, was driving the need to break it. The community, however, was divided over plans to put police in all schools.

  • Harrison, Rye and Scarsdale, also seeking to break their property-tax levy tax caps, easily got enough voter support. To break the tax cap, districts need to get at least 60% of voters' approval. Harrison's budget passed 1,129-554, Rye's 969-383 and Scarsdale's 1,185-558.

  • East Ramapo voters also rejected the district's budget plan, 1,917-1,519. The budget would have increased the tax levy by 1.99%. The rejection continued a trend for the district — since the state's property tax levy cap went into effect in 2012, East Ramapo has had by far the most budget defeats among New York's nearly 700 school districts.

  • Edgemont voters narrowly defeated a $66.8 million bond for capital improvements that the district spent a lot of time developing and selling to the community. The project would have installed air conditioning in all instructional spaces, covered cafeteria upgrades, created STEAM classrooms in all three schools, upgraded baseball and softball field at the high school and more. Superintendent Kenneth Hamilton, in a message to the community, wrote that the proposal would "position our schools for the future." It lost 671-645.

  • In Rye Neck, one school board seat was filled while the other resulted in a tie. Halli Gatenio and Martin O’Reilly tied for an open seat with 429 votes, while Nikki Barker won the other seat with 628 votes. Voters will head to the polls again to break the tie on June 20 in the Middle School/High School Community Room. Voting will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

  • In Clarkstown, it was a sweep for a slate of candidates who criticized the board's 2023 adoption of a policy that outlines the rights of trans kids to use facilities aligned with their gender identity. Incumbent Tamara Bierker, who had voted against the policy, and Jason Bass and Yelena Glukhova won. Incumbent Trustees Christine Alia and Irene Tagaris were ousted, and Donna Gropper also lost.

  • Statewide, 97% of the 671 districts that hold budget votes saw their spending plans passed, according to the New York State School Boards Association. A total of 18 were defeated statewide. In a news release Wednesday, the organization said 98.7% of budget plans that were within their tax caps passed, while 68.8% of budgets seeking to break their caps did. Twenty-two of 32 districts seeking to break their caps got the necessary 60% voter approval to do so. "Despite increasing costs, school districts were able to limit their tax levy increases to an average of 2.58% statewide while holding their proposed spending increases to 3.58%," the release said.

Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her at @nancyrockland on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Threads.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Lower Hudson Valley NY school elections: 2 budget defeats, more