Could Be A Tough 2025-26 School Budget for Sharon Springs Taxpayers

SHARON SPRINGS — The 2025-26 Sharon Springs School District budget has the potential to be one of the toughest on taxpayers in several years, District Business Manager Tony DiPace said at the Monday, Feb. 10 school board meeting.

In an early discussion of next school year's budget, DiPace said everything is preliminary but he has for presentation purposes put in a 2 percent property tax increase for 2025-26. The actual increase, if any, will be determined by the board with the help of DiPace, Superintendent Tom Yorke and other officials during the next few weeks and months before a final budget is passed. Among many possibilities is no tax increase.

DiPace said the district has basically been able to hold the line on taxes for the last several years but it might be tough to do that for next school year. Expenses on almost everything continue to go up and foundational state aid, on which he expects about a 2 percent increase again for 2025-26, is not really keeping pace.

"The property tax levy has been pretty much the same since 2013-14," DiPace said. "(But) There will be some pain with this budget. Tom and I have been working diligently on the budget for the last couple of weeks. The deficit right now is somewhere between $300,000 and $600,000. It could be covered by fund balance."

The business manager described the past year as a "perfect storm" of rising expenses and financial challenges, including the fact that some services the district is obligated to provide cost as much as $125,000 a year per student.

"Schoharie Head Start funding got frozen," DiPace said. "They got some of it back but I'm not sure it will last. All these things are hitting us at one time. Some difficult decisions will have to be made. But we're not broke. We have some money, and some time to plan."

One bright spot could be an increase in money the district receives from the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement with the Walmart distribution center. A new PILOT is still being negotiated, DiPace said.

School Board President Helen Roberts said it's sometimes hard to explain to residents that school district expenses go up too, just like their household expenses.

"We've done well by our taxpayers over the years compared to other districts," she said.

In other actions from the Feb. 10 meeting, the school board approved the addition of the HFM B.O.C.E.S in Johnstown to the Fulmont (Fulton Montgomery) Health Trust that Sharon Springs belongs to along with eight other school districts. It will be up to the HFM facility now whether it actually wants to join the Trust or not but the Feb. 10 board action clears the way for that, DiPace said.

"It's been a great thing for us," he said of the Trust. "It keeps our health insurance costs down."

The board approved the purchase of a Suburban smaller school bus at a cost listed at $85,000, though DiPace said it could end up being lower as he had gotten quotes of as low as $65,000. The purchase will be included in the 2025-26 budget that Sharon Springs residents will vote on, in addition to the school board election, on May 20.

The district has already taken delivery of a full-size bus costing $170,000. School board members approved a bond resolution to pay for it at the meeting.In addition, the board approved a Request For Proposals that will be sent out to solicit proposals from energy service companies that, if the proposal is accepted by the board, would put together an energy saving program for the district.

What the district is mainly looking for, according to DiPace, is "low hanging fruit" like replacing light bulbs with more efficient ones and installing heating controls, not something grander like co-generating its own power.

"It will be limited scope, things we can look at that will give us tangible savings," he said. "Heating controls would definitely save us some money."

In personnel moves at the end of the meeting, coaches were approved for spring sports that will have Sharon Springs fielding combined teams with the neighboring Cherry Valley/Springfield School District. Christopher Smith will be varsity baseball coach, Brittany Pitonza varsity softball coach, Sam Bonderoff modified baseball coach and Alex Yorke modified softball coach.