Goshen Central School District presents $10.13 million revised budget, lowers levy to 2.8% ahead of June vote

GOSHEN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT officials presented a revised $10,133,650 budget at a special board meeting on June 1 and said the board intends to adopt the plan ahead of a districtwide vote on June 16.

President List said the district’s top priority is passing the budget and thanked residents who offered feedback. "It is our intention to adopt the budget," the president said during opening remarks.

Interim Superintendent Mr. Bonjobi laid out the numbers: total proposed expenditures of $10,133,650; reported revenue of $9,660,461; and appropriated reserves of $1,223,189, a decrease the presentation said was $73,312. The board reported lowering the proposed tax levy from 3.06% to 2.8%, which the presentation described as a $148,746 reduction.

The presentation emphasized reallocations rather than across-the-board cuts. Mr. Bonjobi said the district restored or added funds for instruction and student activities — for example, additional teaching salary lines (noted as $34,000 for extra classes), music and art equipment increases ranging from $1,000 to $4,000 depending on the building, and co‑curricular funding for the high school and CJ Hooker Middle School (an additional $5,000 each). He also said the proposed superintendent’s salary in the budget was reduced from a prior figure presented at $285,000 to $260,000 to lower instructional code costs.

The budget presentation listed contingency cuts that would take effect if the budget does not pass; the transcript reported a total contingency reduction of $163,658 and noted that mandated items such as transportation and textbooks cannot be cut. The district explained that under a contingency budget community groups would face higher fees to use district facilities because custodial and related costs would need to be recovered.

Officials said some figures are estimates and described assumptions used for homeowner impact examples: at a home assessed at $450,000 the monthly tax impact was presented as roughly $40; at $550,000 about $49.84; and at $650,000 about $58.90. The presentation also noted additional state aid helped lower the levy.

Next steps: the board set a public hearing on the revised budget for June 8 at 6:30 p.m., and the districtwide budget vote is scheduled for June 16, 6:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. The board did not record a formal adoption vote for the budget during the June 1 special meeting in the transcript; the presentation materials and the public hearing will precede the June 16 vote.

The meeting closed after brief board comments requesting clearer graphics to show how dollars moved between non-student-facing and student-facing categories.