March 15, 2016
CANISTEO, NY – At Monday night’s Canisteo Board of Education meeting, a decision was made on the future of the Canisteo Living Sign. After a presentation by Superintendent Jeremy Palloti it was agreed upon to accept the lowest bid on replacing and replanting the living sign. The lowest bid went to R&M Landscaping for $196,551. The original bid was for $254,000 but that included clearing brush which was determined could be done by Boces and volunteers of the community. To do this the board had to agree to remove funds totaling $200,000 from the repair reserve fund. Palloti said that it will have no impact on local school taxes as the funds are already there. Board president Mike Nesbit hoped that the community will still donate and have a tree named after them to lessen the cost. Ground breaking is to start this spring and hoped to be completed by June 1.
Also in attendance was a Labella Construction representative to give the board and idea about what repairs are imminent and long term and should be considered in any future capital projects. They recommended a total of 12 million dollars’ worth of repairs to all properties in the school districts jurisdiction but noted that most of these are optional at this time except for the elementary school roof.
The 2017-17 school budget numbers were also a little clearer after a brief presentation by Palotti. He was happy to announce that they will see increases in community school aid and foundation aid and also a decrease in health insurance premiums down from an estimated $650,000 to $470,000. Palotti also said that there is no way they can balance the budget this coming school year without overriding the 2% tax cap.
