Wappingers Central School District

From: budget wcsd <budget@wcsdny.org>

Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 1:17 PM
Subject: Re: absentee ballots
To: ninos gregg <gninos71@yahoo.com>

Hello

Ballots that need to be reissued due to a voter making an error or accidentally throwing it away, will be reissued by mail.  Ballots can not be distributed in person.

Eligible voters, who are not registered and who have requested an absentee ballot by use of the Absentee Ballot Request Form, were issued a ballot by the district by mail.

Thank you

On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 10:17 AM ninos gregg <gninos71@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

Thank you for your reply.  Just so that I am clear, if I do not get my ballot in the mail or if it gets lost or destroyed is there any way to request another or I am precluded from voting in the upcoming election?

Also, will those that recently registered on 2 June receive their ballots?

Regards,

Gregg Ninos

 

On Wednesday, June 3, 2020, 10:01:29 AM EDT, budget wcsd <budget@wcsdny.org> wrote:

From: budget wcsd <budget@wcsdny.org>
Date: Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 10:02 AM
Subject: Re: absentee ballots
To: ninos gregg <gninos71@yahoo.com>

Hello

The Executive Order requires that an absentee ballot be mailed to voters. The District is unable to distribute absentee ballots in person. If you have not yet received your ballot, we are unable to send you a new one, as we need to prevent voters from having two opportunities to vote and it is likely that your ballot will arrive. The District has provided drop boxes for voters to deposit their ballots up until 5 p.m. on June 9^th. For more information on the hours of the drop boxes, please see our website.

Thank you 

KC  

On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 5:35 PM ninos gregg <gninos71@yahoo.com> wrote:

Good evening,

I understand that the ballots were just sent out by NTS Data Services yesterday and that they will not arrive until Wednesday, 6/3 at the earliest.  I know that they will be mailed to all registered voters, but what is the contingency plan for registered voters who do not receive theirs in the mail or misplace them, as the deadline to request a new ballot was today, 6/2?  Will ballots be available at District Office to accommodate those who do not get them or misplace them?

I suspect the same answer would apply to anyone who has just registered to vote and will not be receiving a ballot from NTS, but if it does not, can you please explain how they will be able to cast their ballot, too?

Thank you in advance.

Best,

Gregg Ninos

From: budget wcsd <budget@wcsdny.org>
Date: Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: Budget proposal
To: Kim Ashcraft <kim.ashcraft1@gmail.com>

Good morning  thank you for your email

Summer school will be in session in the summer of 2020 in the virtual format.  There is still an associated cost for this work in salaries and supplies.  There was a reduction  made in Transportation's budget for diesel/gasoline related to virtual summer school for 2020-2021.  

Even with the district being closed to students in the classroom in 2019-2020 there are still costs as essential work is being completed and the buildings are closed yet operational.  Custodians have been reporting to work every day for just this reason. The District has been feeding students free breakfast and lunch in a grab and go process since the middle of March 2020 5 days a week.  Virtual school has been in session and staff are being paid.  The budget vote by absentee as mandated  by NYS has been a large and unexpected expense as WCSD has almost 50,000 taxpayers. The Transportation department has been working on routeing for the 2020-2021 school year.  12 month driver/cleaners are cleaning in the buildings as well .  The Central Office staff have continued to be operational as well.  This is all essential work and must continue.  There have been increased costs related to cleaning supplies and equipment as well as the cost of protective supplies (ie: gloves, masks etc).  Any potential savings is yet to be finalized as the school year does not end until 6/30/2020.   The savings cannot be applied to 2020-2021's budget as it is not yet defined and confirmed.  

As for the school vehicle proposition - yes the referendum was approved by the voters in May 2019.  The District has a fleet of over 250 vehicles.  We are trying to keep to a 10 year replacement plan for these vehicles.  The vehicles listed in the presentation are what we are looking to replace.  Annually we prepare a cost benefit analysis to see which vehicles should be replaced.  Not all with higher mileage need to be replaced as their maintenance costs have been lower than some others for example.  As for federal credit after 250,000 miles I have never heard of that but will definitely look in to.  The District has taken advantage of credits with regard to emission systems etc in the past.

I hope this helps to answer some question and provide you with information to make an informed decision.  Please feel free to reach out with additional questions.

Thank you

Kristen Crandall

On Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 9:18 AM Kim Ashcraft <kim.ashcraft1@gmail.com> wrote:

Good Morning,

 

I am looking at the budget proposal for voting on Tuesday, which I only got 6/6/2020. Regarding proposition 1.   I have some questions;  since there is no summer school program this year how was the 83k allocated spent?  How was the money for janitorial services , after school programs, lunches, diesel gas on school bus spent, etc. since schools have been closed since March?

 

Proposition 2 is about the school busses.  I cannot find on line if this was passed last year.  If it was and we replaced the vehicles, why do we need to replace more school buses? It was proposed to replace 17 and the ave school bus can last 250k miles.   According to the website we had 2 with 217k miles, 7 with 194k,  9 with 149k.   So we should now only have 1 with 149k,  and the next 15 only have 137k.  This means we have at least 14 buses that have not reached the 250k mark. As I have researched buses that hit the 250k  are eligible for federal assistance.  

 

Thank you in advance for your assistance so I can be an informed voter. 

 

Sincerely, 

Kim Ashcraft. 

From: Daniel Fischer 
Date: Sat, May 30, 2020 at 1:19 PM
Subject: Re: Response to Public Comment Question
 

Q. The information presented at the meeting did not cover my question as you did not either. You gave no details. Also, the budget that was mailed does not match the one from the meeting. Seems this needs to fixed.

A. Thank you for your email.  The 2020-2021 budget adopted by the Board of Education on May 21, 2020 is Proposition 1 on the ballot.  The ballot presentation is available for review on the website atcheck page here

 Q:  Why does the school board think it is their duty/right to raise taxes double the state governor's cap, about 4%, when there are a significant number of town residences that are out of work due to Covid-19 and are unable to make their rent/mortgage payments?

A:  The Board of Education has approved a budget that meets the needs of students and maintains programs. The proposed tax levy is below the maximum allowable limit for the 2020-2021 school year.  There have been many reductions in many areas of the budget that will be going to the voters on June 9th.  For more information on the WCSD 2020-2021, budget and vote can be found at: check page here

Q:  Why do you provide an opportunity to view the meeting live instead of after? The current link posted on the website (only one and it was intentionally left out from the mass mailing) is to the posted meetings after it has been edited.

A:  The Board of Education meetings are streamed live on YouTube.  The live feed appears on the same page as the recorded board meetings.  You will not see the live feed of the meeting until the meeting has started.  Board of Education meetings are not edited.