TUPPER LAKE, N.Y. (WCAX) – Jobs are on the chopping block as school officials in Tupper Lake craft their proposed school budget.
School Board members will decide on Thursday whether to send the roughly $22-million budget to voters The proposal would cut 16 positions, five which are filled.
The budget will ask voters to approve an 8.6 percent tax increase for the district. Tupper Lake Central School District Superintendent Russell Bartlett says if not approved, the district will have to resort to a contingency budget, which could mean more staffing cuts.
“I hate to think of what this district looks like in a contingency budget situation — we lose so many opportunities for kids and it is so many of those opportunities that keep kids in school that I am really afraid of what that looks like if we do not have them available,” he said.
Tupper Lake’s school budget vote is set for May 21.