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School budget approved
Spending plan passes easily
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Three Village voters easily approved the 2009-10 school budget Tuesday, 2,569-1,673. Two incumbents, Board President John Diviney and Trustee Carol Leister, were re-elected to three year terms, each running unopposed. The budget adopted by the Board of Education for the coming school year totaled $163,117,136, an increase of 2.33 percent over the current year's spending plan. The Board projected an increase of 2.32 percent in the tax rate as a result.
Diviney said he believed this year's spending plan passed easily because "I thought we presented a fiscally responsible budget."
A disturbing trend continued this year. Less voters are going to the polls each year to vote on the budget and trustee candidates. From over 7,000 voters in 2006 the numbers have declined steadily: 5,441 in 2007; 5,072 in 2008; and 4,242 this year. Roughly 12 percent of registered voters cast a ballot Tuesday.
Asked the morning after the vote why so few residents cast a ballot, Diviney suggested two reasons, "This year there were no races" for trustee, he said, "and a relatively low budget" increase may have depressed voter turnout. "I vote," Diviney added, "I'm not responsible for whether other people vote." The just-reelected trustee said turnout appeared low all across Suffolk County, based on numbers he saw Wednesday morning. Diviney thanked those who voted for him and Leister. "We appreciate the voters' confidence," he said.
One small surprise from Tuesday's voting was that of the five elementary schools that serve as the district's polling places, the one at which more nay than aye votes were cast was not Setauket Elementary. That school has had that distinction recently, but this year the only school to total more negative votes was Nassakeag.
The unofficial results according to a school district spokesperson Tuesday night:
Budget: Yes No
Arrowhead 452 177
Minnesauke 553 345
Mount 535 159
Nassakeag 384 400
Setauket 645 492
Totals 2,569 1,673
Trustee (elect two)
John Diviney 2,740
Carol Leister 2,484
Note: The district clerk confirmed the official vote tally on Thursday, May 21, after the paper had gone to print. The figures provided unofficially Tuesday night included an undercount of the nay votes from Mount Elementary School. The vote tallies shown above were corrected May 22.
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