By Miranda Vagg<br><a href="mailto:vaggm@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Miranda</a>
Oak Orchard Elementary School in Medina saw a steady stream of voters throughout the day Tuesday as residents cast their ballots for three Board of Education members and for or against the budget.
Total expenses in the 2008-09 budget — $30,163,792 — are an increase over last year's expenditures by $1.5 million, a 5.53 percent increase. With a significant amount of state aid, though, the tax levy is stable at a zero percent increase.
Voters were posed with two propositions, one being the budget and the other giving permission to the district to “purchase buses, vans and buildings and grounds equipment ... not to exceed the cost of $294,000,” according to the district’s budget brochure.
Resident David Callard was pleased with what the district was able to do financially in the upcoming year’s budget.
“I think generally everything’s positive this year,” he said.
Yvonne Peters, a retired Medina teacher’s associate in the special education department, was preparing for her turn to proctor the elections.
“It’s a good thing the way the economy is going up in Medina,” Peters said about the budget.
With four people running for three seats on the school board, two of whom are incumbents — Carl Tuohey and Susanne Keryk, she also said she wasn’t very familiar with a couple of the candidates. Peters said last week, though, candidate Rosalind Lind stopped by her home while out campaigning.
“They’ve got some really good, qualified candidates,” said Jim Hancock. “Any one of them would do a good job.”
According to Hancock, being a board member is a large investment of time and he was happy to see new faces in the community stepping up to the plate.
Below is a breakdown of each of the five Orleans County school districts and how they fared in this year’s school elections. Board members elected to serve in their district are marked in bold:
Albion
MARGY BROWN: 443, five-year term
KENNETH BIEBER JR.: N/A
ROBERT PINSON: N/A
MARIE SNYDER: 350 votes, five-year term
BUDGET: $32.2 million — 497-166
PROPOSITIONS: Library budget — 420-240; Bus purchase — 505-151
Medina
CARL TUOHEY: 354
SUSANNE KERYK: 416
CHRISTOPHER KELLER: 407
ROSALIND LIND: 587
BUDGET: $30,163,792 — 479-156
PROPOSITIONS: Bus purchase, $294,000 — 450-161
Lyndonville
CHRISTINA FELDMAN: 194
EDWARD URBANIK: 184
WILLIAM C. JURINICH: 182
BUDGET: $12,710,000 — 159-63
PROPOSITIONS: Bus purchase, $92,000 — 178-44, Transpotation vehicle reserve fund — 161-61; Capital improvement reserve fund — 165-57; Yates Community Library budget — 149-73
Holley
NORMAN KNIGHT: 415
ROBIN SILVIS: 414
CHARLES M. PATTON: 438
ERIC SPENCER: 396
BUDGET: $20,132,582 — 348-380
PROPOSITIONS: Community Free Library support, $91,680 — 384-337; Bus purchases, $325,000 —353-368
Kendall
EDWARD GAESSER: 199, five-year term
JOHN COLE: 160
CHARLES “CHUCK” PATT: 94
BUDGET: $16,244,095 — 289-152
PROPOSITIONS: Bus reserve — 245-114
