Voters in the Batavia City School District will be asked on May 21 to approve a budget of $50,518,573, with a projected increase in the tax levy of 2.93 percent.
The Board of Trustees approved the proposed budget Tuesday night, following a public hearing, sending it to the voters for final approval before the 2019-2020 school year.
Spending in the district will drop 3.20 percent, or more than to $1.6 year-over-year if voters approve the budget.
The proposed tax rate is $22.06 for 2019-2020, up from $21.67 this year.
Voting will take place on Tuesday, May 21, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Robert Morris building and Batavia High School.
As part of the public hearing, Superintendent Chris Dailey, in his final budget hearing with the district (he's taken a job with the Gates Chili Central School District) shared a good deal of detail about the district.
This year, there are 2,377 students enrolled, and though the district provides free breakfast and lunch to all students, under government guidelines for free and reduced-price lunches, 59 percent of the district students qualify.
The attendance rate is 95 percent. Dailey said that is the highest in the area.
"It doesn't hurt that students know they are getting two free meals a day," Dailey said. "They know they're going to eat at least twice."
There are 259.4 teachers in the district, 122 teachers aides and clerical employees, 39 maintenance staff, four assistant principals, four principals, five people in IT, 24 in nutritional services, and seven in the central office.
The BHS graduation rate is 92 percent. That is, again, one of the highest in the area, Dailey said.
In the coming year, the district will add a Batavia police officer as a school resource officer.
Some of the programs in the district that are not mandated by the state but that Dailey said the community demands:
- Kindergarten
- K-12 art classes
- K-5 music
- Instrumental lessons starting in the third grade
- School plays and musicals
- AP and college credit courses
- Athletics
- Extracurricular clubs
- A college and career center
- Small class sizes
- Teachers' aides
