The Tupper Lake Central School District’s Board of Education held its regular meeting on Monday. Superintendent Jaycee Welsh, left, answered several questions from board members following her presentation on TLCSD’s tentative budget and other ballot items district voters will consider on May 20. (Enterprise photo — Chris Gaige)

TUPPER LAKE — Tupper Lake Central School district voters have more than a budget to consider when they head to the polls on May 20.

These include an election for one open seat on TLCSD’s Board of Education, a proposition for one new school bus and a proposition to create a capital reserve fund.

The school board is slated to meet on April 24 at 3:30 p.m. to vote on adopting the proposed budget and finalizing the ballot. To read about TLCSD’s tentative budget, which is subject to change before it is ultimately put to voters, visit tinyurl.com/nmpbvcfy.

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Board of Education

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One school board seat is up for election. It’s currently held by Josh Tremblay, who was appointed to the board last June following Korey Kenniston’s resignation. Kenniston left after expressing dissatisfaction with the final three candidates that the board had narrowed its superintendent search to, and did not want to be associated with the final selection.

Tremblay told the Enterprise on Thursday that he intends to run for reelection. The position carries a three-year term. He said he had collected the necessary 25 petition signatures for ballot access, but has not yet submitted the paperwork with the district.

Candidates must be U.S. citizens 18 years or older, be able to read and write and be a legal resident of the district continuously and uninterrupted for at least a year before the election date. They can’t be a district employee nor hold another position of public office that could pose a conflict of interest with their board member position — such as superintendent, clerk, tax collector, treasurer, librarian or an employee of the board — not be removed from school district office within a year before the election date and must be the only member of the same household on the board.

Paperwork to be a candidate can be picked up at TLCSD’s district office, located at 294 Hosely Ave., during regular business hours. It must be submitted by April 21 at 5 p.m. People with questions can stop in, call the district office at 518-359-3371 or email TLCSD Clerk Shauni Kavanaugh at shaunik@tupperlakecsd.net.

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Bus purchase

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TLCSD plans to propose the purchase of one new school bus, which requires a separate vote — and approval by a simple majority of voters — from the school budget. In 2024, the district’s proposal to trade in and purchase two new 66-seat diesel-operated buses for $341,164, less trade-in value, was narrowly rejected by voters, with 565 voting against it and 562 in favor. This year, the district is proposing the purchase of one smaller, 30-seat gasoline-operated bus for $110,796, according to TLCSD Superintendent Jaycee Welsh.

“We’re really hoping that it increases our efficiency with some travel,” she said. “We think that this would be good for our district and would be a cost-effective way to continue making sure we have a strong fleet.”

Welsh said that often, the district conducts bus runs with far fewer students than it can hold. These commonly include traveling to away games with smaller sports teams. She said that looking to purchase one smaller bus, which Welsh said the district currently does not have any of in its fleets, rather than two full-size buses, was more financially prudent.

“We’re only looking for one,” she said. “We have a nice fleet right now. This district seems to go out for two usually, which I think is very standard, a lot of districts do that, but we need a smaller bus. We need to be little bit more cost-efficient.”

TLCSD’s school board needed to first vote to adopt the bus proposal before it’s put to voters. It did so at its March 10 meeting, with all four members in attendance in favor.

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Capital reserve fund

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District voters will also be asked to establish a capital reserve fund for the district to use as a down payment on future capital projects, including repairs needed at the Tupper Lake Memorial Civic Center, which the school district owns and operates.

Welsh said the idea, which is new for TLCSD, was suggested by its financial advisor, Dr. Rick Timbs, as a way for the district to be proactive about these future costs. Under state law, voters must approve the creation of a capital reserve fund, as well as how money is spent out of it.

“It’s going to be conservative, we’ve never had a capital reserve,” she said. “We’re looking at the proposition going to voters for $3 million over 10 years.”

Welsh said that funding for the capital reserve would not come on top of, nor in addition to, the tax levy for the district’s annual budget. Rather, she said excess funds the district has at the end of each fiscal year could be transferred into the capital reserve. It could also be funded through private donations that the school district approves, according to Welsh. In his long-term financial assessment presentation of TLCSD given at its March 10 school board meeting, Timbs lauded capital reserves as a way for school districts throughout the state to be transparent with voters and ensure that funds are used for the specific purposes that they were intended for.

Welsh echoed this during her tentative budget presentation on Monday.

“We cannot spend a penny of this reserve without a public vote,” she said. “Anything that gets put into this reserve — it then gets put back out to the voters in order for us to spend it. It’s very transparent.”

TLCSD’s school board needed to first vote to adopt the capital reserve proposal before it’s put to voters. It did so at its meeting on Monday, with all four members in attendance in favor.

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The vote

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Polls will be open from noon to 8 p.m. on May 20. Voting will be held at the Middle-High School Library, located at 25 Chaney Ave. Results are expected to be announced shortly after polls close that evening.

The school board’s next meeting is scheduled for April 24 at 3:30 p.m. at the L.P. Quinn Elementary School’s library, located at 294 Hosely Ave. The board will vote on adopting the budget. If approved, Welsh said the next step is to get the word out to voters. She said budget transparency was a paramount goal as she rounds out her first year as superintendent.

“If the budget is adopted (by the board) at that point, we will have budget pamphlets,” she said. “We’ll actually have them printed in good faith to give anybody who’s here. We’ll have revenues explained, expenses outlined, the tax cap levy explained, propositions explained and we’ll introduce the candidates that are running for our board (of education) and we’ll also be able to publicize what we’re doing for our budget information sessions.”

Welsh said that TLCSD was eyeing between six and eight budget information sessions.

“Anybody in the community who wants to come learn about the budget, talk about the budget, will have that opportunity,” she said.

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Staff Writer Aaron Marbone contributed to this report.