Due to the COVID-19 virus, voting for the annual School District Budget and Board of Education election will be done by absentee ballot only. Residents of the Galway Central School District will begin to receive absentee ballots and the school district budget newsletter in the mail in the coming days.
Please click here to read the budget newsletter.
The Galway Central School District worked hard to contain costs for the 2020-21 budget. The district reduced the original budget proposal by $440,950 and kept the overall budget-to-budget increase to $649,701 or 2.91%.
The majority of the budget-to-budget increase is due to additional debt service payments for the capital improvement project. Of that amount, $696,133 will be reimbursed to the district by the state in the form of NYS Building Aid at a rate of 77%. Other increases the district faced were offset by reductions in all other line items.
The proposed tax levy increase is 1.99%, which is well below the district’s maximum allowable tax levy cap of 4.21%.
The district has been able to maintain programs and services and achieve cost savings by reducing in strategic areas. This will allow the district to withstand pending revenue decreases from NYS while keeping the core of our excellent instructional programs intact.
The district will use $1,374,599 from the fund balance to offset the tax levy. This is the same amount that was used last year.
The only special ballot proposition is for the bus purchase. The district is looking to replace one 72-passenger bus and two 20-passenger buses.
Two people are running for two seats on the Board of Education – incumbents Michelle Bombard and Karen English.
Absentee ballots need to be completed and returned to the district via mail by June 9, 2020 at 5 p.m. (Statewide Uniform Voting Day). The district will also have a drop box located outside the gym entrance of the Galway Junior/Senior High School on June 9 until 5 p.m. at which time the vote counting process will commence.
The district will hold a Virtual Public Hearing on the proposed 2020-2021 school budget on Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. on the Galway YouTube Channel. Please click here for the link to view. If you would like to pose a question for the virtual Public Hearing, please email it to [email protected].
If you have not received an absentee ballot by June 5, 2020, please call or email the District Clerk, Linda Dumblewski, at 518-882-1033 Ext. 3224 or [email protected].
Process to Ensure Privacy When Counting Absentee Ballots
Education Law provides that an envelope containing a returned absentee ballot is not to be opened until a determination is made that there is no reason for rejecting the ballot, which could happen if, for example, the voter fails to provide the signature required by law to appear on the envelope containing the ballot. Once such a determination is made and the envelope opened, the ballot is withdrawn without unfolding and deposited into the proper ballot box. As a result, at the time of counting, the ballots will not be linked to the envelope in which they were returned.
Pursuant to the express language of the Education Law, absentee ballots must remain folded until they are actually counted.
Please make sure you:
- Fill out the Oath envelope completely
- Sign the Oath envelope
- Place the Oath envelope into the postage-paid return envelope
- Place the return envelope in the mail so it will be received by the district no later than 5 p.m. on June 9, 2020
Each absentee ballot in your household should be placed in its own Oath envelope and returned in its own postage-paid return envelope.