Voters approve M-W's $149.1 million budget and buying 10 buses

Voters also elect Wayne Chan, John MacDonald and Jennifer Trumper to school board Central Valley - By a 3-to-2 margin, residents of the Monroe-Woodbury School District approved a $149.1 million spending plan for the 2011-12 school year that will increase taxes by 2.82 percent. The district faced the loss of millions of dollars in state aid, but school officials were able to keep overall spending to 0.9 percent through a series of economies. There were no layoffs, but more than dozen teachers retired and will not be replaced. Meanwhile, voters also gave the district approval to spend $977,500 to buy five large and five medium-sized buses. The state is expected to pick up more than half of the cost. School Board election Five candidates ran for three seats on the school board. Each seat carries a term of office of three years. Incumbent Wayne Chan was the leading vote-getter in Tuesday’s school board election. Chan, who also is a Monroe Village trustee and a long-time official with the Monroe Volunteer Ambulance Corps, received 1,918 votes to win his second term on the school board. “I look forward to working with those who have the best interest of our children in mind,” Chan wrote in an e-mail exchange following the vote. “We have many challenges ahead of us. The only way to meet these challenges is by working closely together. John MacDonald, who taught history and social students for more than 30 years in Highland Falls, received the second most votes with 1,773. He fell short in his first run for the school board last year. Described by one supporter as “a serious but soft-spoken man,” MacDonald ran a campaign whose slogan was: “We can Do Better.” “I think my victory says that not only does our board have to focus on keeping taxes low, but it also can’t loose sight of improving educational quality,” MacDonald said in an e-mail exchange. “Furthermore, the distractions of personal issues are dangerous because they discourage the constructive criticism that can make our district better in both ways.” Incumbent Jennifer Trumper captured the third seat and will begin her second three-year term of office. Incumbent Eleni Carter and first-time candidate Lyn Prestia followed with 1,647 and 1,481 votes, respectively. “I feel honored to have had the opportunity to serve the children and taxpayers of Monroe Woodbury as a Board of Education Trustee for the past three years,” Carter wrote in an e-mail exchange with The Photo News. “I extend my congratulations to Mr. Chan and Mrs. Trumper on their re-elections and to Mr. MacDonald on his election. “I also would like to express my deepest gratitude to the members of this community who supported my candidacy but, more importantly, helped pass the budget and bus purchase propositions,” she added. “This school district is a special place to me, so even though I will no longer be able to serve in an official capacity as a member of the Audit, Community Relations, and Visitation Committees, I remain committed to finding ways to advocate for the quality of our children’s education and for responsible fiscal management for the benefit of the taxpayers,” Carter concluded. According to the unofficial tallies, 3,610 people voted one way or the other on the budget. However, one school official noted that 778 of those people did not vote for a single school board candidate. Monroe-Woodbury Proposition 1: $149.1 million school budget Yes: 2,205 No: 1,405 Proposition 2: Authorize the purchase of five large buses and five mid-sized buses at a cost of $977,500 Yes: 1,861 No: 1,587