Fayetteville-Manlius voters approve $122.5 million budget, write-in wins board seat

Fayetteville-Manlius voters approved a $122,496,620 school budget for 2026-27, a plan that will raise spending by 5.22%, or $6,077,072, and push the district’s tax levy up 3.12%.

For families and property owners, the vote means a larger school bill this fall, even as the district says the budget is designed to keep current student programming and services in place. The tax levy remains the district’s main revenue source and is expected to support about 63.3% of the budget. Because the increase stayed at the district’s calculated levy limit, the plan passed with a simple majority rather than needing the 60% supermajority required for a higher levy hike.

The vote carried more than budget significance. An unusual write-in result decided one of three available Fayetteville-Manlius Board of Education seats after only two candidates, Robert J. Spencer and Kristen Purcell, filed nominating petitions by the April 20 deadline. The winning write-in candidate will join the board for a three-year term beginning July 1.

District officials had framed the spending plan as a way to preserve programs while absorbing higher costs tied to instruction, student support and transportation. Those expenses include teacher and staff salaries and benefits, instructional technology, special education, co-curricular activities and athletics. Earlier in the budget process, the district said it expected to use about $4 million in fund balance to help balance revenues and expenditures while protecting current offerings.

Voters also approved spending for transportation and libraries. The ballot included the purchase of six diesel-powered school buses and two gasoline-powered vans at a cost not to exceed $1,529,830. Separate library tax levies also won approval: $1,548,396 for the Manlius Library and $2,172,035 for the Fayetteville Free Library.

The vote was held May 19 at Wellwood Middle School from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. With the district’s 2025-26 budget at $116 million, the new spending plan marks a year-over-year increase of about $6.5 million, underscoring how closely local school budgets now track salaries, transportation, and program costs that households feel directly in their tax bills.