About the School District Budget

Last week, the Hudson City School District sent out this post card informing people of the upcoming "School Budget Vote & Board Election."

The post card provides a great deal of important information, the first being that the annual vote on the school district budget will take place on Tuesday, June 9, but the vote will be entirely by absentee ballot. The ballots must be mailed in and received by the district clerk no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 9. There is, however, no indication of when voters should expect to receive their ballots.

The final paragraph on the card merits some attention:

Qualified voters on the most recent years' poll lists will be automatically sent an absentee ballot. Anyone who meets the definition of "qualified voter" but does not believe they will be on the School District's poll list, which contains the names of residents who voted in recent years' elections, please contact Leslie Coons, District Clerk, at districtclerk@hudsoncsd.org or 518-828-4360 ext. 2100 as soon as possible to ensure timely receipt of an absentee ballot. Additional information on how an unregistered voter, who meets the definition of a qualified voter, may receive an absentee ballot is available at www.hudsoncsd.org/june-2020-voting-info.

This paragraph raises a question: What is "the School District's poll list, which contains the names of residents who voted in recent years' elections"? Which "recent years' elections"? Let's hope it's not recent years' school district elections, since voter turnout for those elections is typically abysmal. Something not particularly reassuring was that the post card was addressed to "Resident," but I guess it was done that way to reach people who lived in the Hudson City School District but might not already be on their poll list.

If you are interested in the HCSD budget, and you should be, there is a public hearing about the budget tomorrow, Tuesday, May 26, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place on Zoom, and the post card indicates, "The public is welcome to view the meeting." If this is a public hearing, shouldn't the public be able to make comments and not just "view" the meeting? As of this moment--twenty-two hours before the meeting is to begin--no information about accessing the meeting is available, but when it is, it should be found here.

Gossips has not been following the budget process closely enough, but Ken Sheffer has. He wrote this opinion piece, which Gossips is happy to share: "Fantasy Budgeting: The School Budget that Doesn't Matter and the Coming Funding Crisis for the Hudson City School District." It's recommended reading before tomorrow's budget hearing and certainly before submitting your absentee ballot.
COPYRIGHT 2020 CAROLE OSTERINK