Shelter Island voters turned out in higher than typical numbers Tuesday; they passed the school budget and rejected a proposal to extend the nonpublic busing limit to 17 miles. They also elected newcomer Anthony Rando and incumbents Tracy McCarthy and Dawn Hedberg to serve on the school board.
With a busing initiative and contested school board race, the election drew about 350 more voters than last year when about 180 people took part.
Voters pass school budget
Voters supported the $12.6 M budget 427 to 110, far beyond the 60-percent margin needed to support the spending plan. The budget did not surpass the state’s tax levy cap, coming in at a 1.76 percent increase. But the supermajority was necessary due to the ballot initiative to extend the 15-mile nonpublic school busing limit.
Had that measure been approved, it would’ve pushed spending beyond the cap. But, instead, voters rejected it 288 to 253.
Rando got the highest number of votes, 375, which means he’ll be appointed immediately to fill the incomplete term of Robert Strauss, who resigned after taking a position as a science teacher at the school.
Incumbents McCarthy (356) and Hedberg (313) were re-elected for three-year terms. Emily R. Parsons, who was running for the first time, got 247 votes.
Busing initiative
The cost associated with the additional bus was $102,498. It included ferriage that the off-Island busing service must pay for two daily roundtrips — one in the morning when the bus arrives on the Island to pick up students and the other in the afternoon when it delivers students back to the Island.
The measure was added to the ballot following a petition by parents seeking to extend to the entire Island busing to Our Lady of the Hamptons Roman Catholic School in Southampton.
In the past, at least one of the district students attending has lived within the 15-mile limit. So the district provided a bus, as required by law, and, as permitted, other Island students attending the school rode along. But no student lives within the 15-mile limit, meaning parents must drive the kids themselves or arrange alternate transportation.
