Bridgehampton school district
VOTING
2 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Bridgehampton School gymnasium.
THE BUDGET
The district proposes a $16,297,465 budget for 2018-19, a 13.52 percent increase from the current $14,356,463. The tax levy would increase 13.72 percent, from $12,623,558 to $14,355,231.
This is within the district’s tax-cap limit of 13.72 percent, so a simple majority is required to approve the budget.
School taxes on the average single-family home would increase 5.97 percent, from $4,168 to approximately $4,417, going from $1.67 per $1,000 assessed value to an estimated $1.77 per $1,000 of assessed value.
The proposed budget includes a teacher salary increase of 0.75 percent and three new teaching and staff positions — an elementary guidance counselor, an elementary co-teacher position, and a career and technical education teacher as the district moves to add an agricultural CTE designation to students’ diplomas in one of four tracks — agribusiness, plant systems (horticulture and landscaping), natural resource systems (environmental science) and food processing systems (food production and culinary arts).
The largest increase is for new debt service, a $988,965 first payment on the $24.7 million bond that voters approved in late 2016 to fund school expansion and renovation. The bond will be paid off over 20 years. Construction is set to begin in July.
District website:
bridgehamptonschool.com
THE CANDIDATES
Three at-large seats are up for election and the incumbents are uncontested in seeking three-year terms. Ron White, board president; Lillian Tyree-Johnson, vice president; and trustee Douglas DeGroot are running unopposed, each for a fourth term.
