Lakeland School Budget Plan Is Under The State Tax Cap

SHRUB OAK, NY — Voters in the Lakeland school district will be going to the polls May 21 to have their say on the budget for the 2019-20 school year. There are two fiscal propositions on the ballot.

The proposed spending package is $174,870,235, up 5% percent from the current year. The tax levy increase is 1.49%, below the property tax cap.

The budget adds a foreign language component at Grade 6 in Lakeland Copper Beech Middle School. The district’s special education programs will also be expanded with co-teaching classes at kindergarten and the middle school.

Facilities projects in the budget proposal for 2019-20 include reconstruction of the Walter Panas High School softball and baseball fields with installation of year-round turf fields, roof and boiler replacements, and a connecting corridor at Van Cortlandtville Elementary School.

Also on the ballot will be a transportation request for $1,568,970. The district wants to replace some high-mileage vehicles. Proposition Two would authorize purchase of six large buses, four 30-passenger buses, six 20-passenger buses, two wheelchair-enabled vans, and four suburbans, one work van and one buildings and grounds truck. The vehicles being replaced are costly to maintain given their age and high mileage.

The total cost of this year’s proposition will be $1,568,970. Lakeland presently receives 57% state aid on the purchase of the school buses. Payment for the buses will be included in the 2020-21 budget. The 2019-20 budget includes payment for the bus bond approved at the budget vote in May 2018.

The district is spread across six towns, three in Putnam County and three in Westchester. So the actual property tax rates take until August to calculate, as the state hands down its current formula for equalizing school tax rates across town borders based on comparing property values and towns set tax levies.

The estimated school property tax rate changes for Lakeland's towns:

• Carmel: -1.5%
• Cortlandt: 1.5%
• Phillipstown: -1.7%
• Putnam Valley: 2.7%
• Somers: 2.2%
• Yorktown: -0.3%