Superintendent Douglas is like an author on a book tour: traveling to events and groups to pitch its proposed 2009-2010 budget.  Her message is that  the district has worked hard to keep cost increases to a minimum.  The budget-to-budget increase is .54% ($69.26 mm), although to property owners it will be a higher 2.9% increase.

Voters in the school district vote this Tuesday, May 19.

The Village of Nyack could learn from the School District as far as how it distributes information. Even though the district’s budget is 10 times that of the Village, residents know less about it, but it’s not from a lack of information.  Go to http://www.nyackschools.com/vote.html, and you’ll find a wealth of information about the budget, including a highlights document.

What the Village does an excellent job is holding multiple meetings to go through the budget in detail, where the public can comment.  But most people can’t make meetings, and there is no way for people to find out what happened.  The School Board meetings, on the other hand, are available as podcasts on the website.