Clarkstown School Budget Approved; Malgieri, Grogan Re-Elected

Clarkstown school district voters have approved the school budget and re-elected school board members Joe Malgieri of New City and Kevin Grogan of West Nyack.

Budget vote:
Yes - 3393
No - 1591

School board:
Malgieri 3359
Grogan 2892
Karen Kasman 2138

Rain doesn't stop voters

Clarkstown school district residents came out in force throughout the day today, despite the rain, to cast their ballots in the school election.

Schools officials say voting was heavy throughout the district, where residents  decided the fate of the proposed $173.8 million school budget and choose among three candidates for two school board seats.

Schools Superintendent Margaret Keller-Cogan said there have not been any problems reported at school poling places, where the district is using Rockland's new digital scanner voting machines. The digital machines replaced familiar pull lever voting machines in Rockland County in 2010, when they were used for the primary and general elections.

Voting for both the school board trustees and the annual budget was open until 9 p.m. at the following locations:

• Clarkstown North High School
• Congers Elementary School  
• Link Elementary School
• West Nyack Elementary School

Keller-Cogan, however, acknowledged that conditions were crowded at West Nyack Elementary School this morning for some voters because of very limited parking at the school. Additionally, Keller-Cogan said there was a kindergarten orientation session at the school this morning.

West Nyack Senior Citizens Club No. 1 president Jim Finn said he and other senior citizens had difficulty getting to the polls at West Nyack Elementary because of the number of cars at the school today. Finn questioned the timing of the orientation, suggesting that Election Day not the best timing.

Keller-Cogan said kindergarten orientation is scheduled on a school-by-school basis, depending upon the school's needs and local schedules. However, Keller-Cogan said she believes West Nyack Elementary School is a bad location for a polling place because of the very limited parking and the school's location along a very busy street — West Nyack Road.

Keller-Cogan said she would like to consider moving the polling place for future elections, but that a proposal has not yet been presented to the school board to consider

The Clarkstown police recently had stepped up traffic enforcement on West Nyack Road near the school because of complaints about speeding and agressive driving in the area. In addition to being on a very busy connector road – linking Route 59 and Strawtown Road to Route 304 — the school is on a curved section of West Nyack Road, with limited sight distance for motorists.

School Board Candidates

In today's election, three candidates ran for two seats:

• Kevin Grogan
• Karen Kasman
• Joe Malgieri

and are incumbents and move on to atheir second, three-year terms.

served on the board from 2000-2006 and was looking to return.

Budget Highlights

The proposed budget does not call for any staff layoffs and restores a number of academic and athletic programs cut last year. Here are some highlights:

• The 2011-2012 budget adopted by the school board is $173,894,684.
• This represents a 2.30% increase in the tax levy.
• This represents a 3.77% budget to budget increase from last year.
• The budget includes funds for new buses and vans, reinstatement of freshman athletics and some varsity assistant coaches.

More details on the budget can be found

.