By Holly Crocco The Carmel School Board on April 21 unanimously approved the first tax cut in the history of the district. The $152.8 million budget for 2026-27 reflects a 3.7 percent spending increase but a 0.1 percent tax rate reduction, thanks to the use of $3.9 million from reserves. That coverts to a 1/10th of 1 percent tax levy reduction. “For too long, the so-called experts said it could not be done – that the only solution was to keep raising taxes,” said School Board

By Holly Crocco The Mahopac School Board on April 21 adopted a $148.3 million budget for 2026-27, which represents a 2.23 percent spending increase over the current year. The proposed tax levy of $94 million comes in at about $2.1 million less than what is allowed under the state-mandated property tax cap, which equals a 0 percent tax levy increase. Under the cap, the district could have opted to raise the tax levy by 2.32 percent. For a home valued at $500,000, the budget wi

Students and staff cut the ribbon to officially debut the new mural on the corridor that connects C.V. Starr and H.H. Wells schools. Brewster students, teachers, administrators, and PTA members got together April 6 for a ribbon-cutting and the unveiling of a new mural – “Journey of a Brewster Bear” – at the intermediate and middle school. What began as a simple idea to bring color to the walls and create a meaningful give-back opportunity for students grew into a large-scale

By Holly Crocco Brewster Central School District Superintendent Dr. Michelle Gosh is proposing a $128.5 million budget for 2026-27, which is a budget-to-budget increase of 3.74 percent or $4.6 million. This represents a tax levy increase of 2.6 percent. According to Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Victor Karlsson, expenses are driven by increasing utility costs, as well as insurance and employee benefits, among other items. About $35.1 million in revenue w

Haldane Central School District Superintendent Dr. Gail Duffy last week presented a proposed 2026-27 budget that is impacted by an upcoming capital project and efforts to improve traffic conditions, as well as a plan to move toward an electric bus fleet. The $31.8 million spending plan represents a 5.77 percent budget-to-budget increase over 2025-26, and a 5.53 percent tax levy increase – the maximum allowed under the state-mandated property tax cap. This equates to an incre

By Holly Crocco The Garrison Union Free School District has commenced litigation against Tetra Tech Engineers, Architects & Landscape Architects, P.C., in connection with the design of the HVAC replacement system at the district’s school building, which cost about $2.4 million. The HVAC replacement was part of a larger project that was proposed in 2019, and Tetra Tech was retained in 2020 to do the installation. The lawsuit alleges that the company failed to deliver a profess

By Holly Crocco The Putnam Valley Central School District is considering a $65.2 million budget for the 2026-27 school year, which represents a 3 percent budget-to-budget increase and results in a 1.98 percent tax levy hike. “The gross levy change in dollars means that we get to add $844,363 to the budget (a total tax levy of $43.4 million),” said Dr. Grace Chan, assistant superintendent of business administration, at the March 12 Putnam Valley School Board meeting. “This is

By Holly Crocco After months of drafting and debating, the Carmel School Board on March 10 adopted a policy that prohibits fraternization between school employees and students. Policy 2968 reads, in summary, that the relationship between district staff and students needs to be professional, ethical, free of bias, conductive to learning, have appropriate boundaries, and be free of any behavior that could lead to the appearance of impropriety. Inappropriate grooming or dating,

By Holly Crocco The Garrison Union Free School Board got its first look at the proposed $15.3 million budget for the 2026-27 school year during its March 4 meeting. According to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Greg Stowell, in drafting the budget, administration sought to stay within the state-mandated property tax cap, address infrastructure needs, maintain staffing levels, pilot new literacy programs, and invest in its proposed outdoor learning space – all while being mindful

This rendering by CPL Architects shows the vision for an outdoor educational learning space at the Garrison Union Free School District. By Holly Crocco The Garrison Union Free School District is considering developing an outdoor educational learning space on forested property that has been deeded to the district over the past 70 years. “This is something that, obviously, there is a lot of interest in and the board is very excited about,” said Garrison School Board President D

Carmel school buses currently park in a lot that is partially mud and dirt, at Kent Elementary School. By Holly Crocco The Carmel Central School District is considering putting a transportation capital reserve project before voters in May, which would renovate the bus lot currently in use at Kent Elementary School – at no cost to taxpayers.. According to Superintendent of Schools Michael Plotkin, the district is seeking to use between $2 million and $2.5 million in capital re

By Holly Crocco Both the Carmel and Brewster school boards last week unanimously approved resolutions to make a boundary line change that would place an incoming development entirely within the Brewster Central School District. In exchange, Carmel Central School District will be gifted several properties. Camarda Realty Investments is in the process of developing 185 acres between Putnam Plaza and Route 312 in the Town of Carmel, with Gateway Summit to offer age-restricted se

JFK students who are celebrating a birthday or half-birthday line up to get a book from the Bear-thday Book Vending Machine. Students at JFK Elementary School in Brewster hear a special announcement come over the PA system Friday afternoons: “Students who are celebrating their birthday or half-birthday, please go to the cafeteria for your bear-thday book!” The Bear-thday Book Vending Machine will eventually allow every student in the school to choose a birthday book to keep f

Fulmar Road Elementary School students in Mahopac try their hand at “Ice hockey." Professional athletes aren’t the only ones who want in on the Olympics excitement. Fulmar Road Elementary School kindergartners in Mahopac recently celebrated the Winter Olympics with an opening ceremony parade through the school hallways, greeted by cheers from older students along the way. Representing their home classrooms, students wore blue, red, yellow or green and proudly waved paper flag

The Mahopac School Board rose to its feet in announcing that it unanimously supported a member who works for ICE, and who some community members said should be removed. By Holly Crocco The Mahopac School Board was unanimous in stating last week that it would not be seeking to remove a board member due to his day job. “The board of education stands united behind Trustee Chris Harrigan and will not be entertaining his removal,” said President Michael Mongon at the board’s Jan.

By Rob Sample The Garrison Union Free School Board voted unanimously Jan. 7 to approve an amended district-wide safety plan. The amended plan adds a special patrol officer for the district, through a contract with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, as well as a cardiac-response plan crafted in response to new state legislation. The newly adopted safety plan can be viewed at www.gufs.org . A special patrol officer is a retired police officer who is responsible for school secu

Matthew Paterson students show off their projects. Provided photos. Learning about the Middle Ages is part of the fourth grade curriculum at Carmel Central School District. To bring that curriculum to life, students at Matthew Paterson Elementary School recently showed one another what they learned about the medieval period. The students had to pick a topic – castles and knights, lord of the manor or serf, medieval village, etc. – and decide how to present it to the class. Th

From left are Mahopac High School Principal Patrick Keevins, Mahopac School Board Trustee Tanner McCracken, Acting Superintendent Frank Miele, and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction Matthew Lawrence. A proposal by Mahopac School Board Trustee Tanner McCracken to make personal financial literacy a graduation requirement for all students was approved unanimously at the board’s Nov. 18 meeting – making Mahopac the first school district in New York State to hav

By Holly Crocco Not for the first time in recent years, residents of the Carmel Central School District were drawn to a school board meeting to address inflammatory comments made by a board member that seemingly attacked minority members of the community. Following the Nov. 4 election of Zohran Mamdani as the first Muslim mayor of New York City, Trustee Michael Torpey posted a video on Facebook in which he stated: “So New York City, congratulations and thank you for doing you

The pink line represents the boundary line between the Brewster and Carmel schools, which bisects individual housing units being developed as part of the Gateway Summit (blue) and Fairways (orange) in Carmel. By Holly Crocco A housing development under construction in the Town of Carmel that straddles the boundary line between the Brewster and Carmel school districts – not only dissecting streets, but in some cases, homes – has the districts negotiating over the potential stu