Pine Bush voters approve $153.2 million school budget, settle board race

Pine Bush voters approved a $153,150,596 school budget Tuesday and chose Phillip Salinardi and incumbent Kristi Kheiralla for the two open Board of Education seats, giving the district both a spending plan and a governing majority set to steer it into next year. The budget passed 992-679, nearly 60 percent support, a decisive margin in a year of tight school finances.

The board adopted the plan on April 24. It is 2.2 percent larger than the current budget, or about $3.3 million more, and it raises the tax levy 3.42 percent to $66,616,885 while staying within the state tax levy limit. State aid is projected to increase just 0.61 percent, or $488,074, and the district said it will use $3,385,038 in fund balance to close the gap. Superintendent Joe Lenz said in a May 13 district notice that the process was “uniquely challenging” because the New York State budget was still unapproved as Pine Bush finalized its own plan. For a home valued at $400,000, the district estimated an annual school tax increase of about $202.67, or just under $17 a month.

For families, the budget keeps all existing academic, co-curricular and athletic programs in place and adds a welding Career and Technical Education program at Pine Bush High School in 2027. The district said the welding track will become its fourth CTE offering, joining advanced manufacturing, woodworking and business. To make the spending plan work, 20 positions will be eliminated through retirement and staff reallocation, with no layoffs, and one administrative assistant position in the district office will be cut.

The board race carried its own stakes because it fills two three-year terms that will shape how the new budget is carried out. Voting ran from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with residents of Gardiner, Shawangunk, Crawford and Montgomery casting ballots at Pine Bush High School and voters from Mount Hope, Wallkill and Mamakating going to Circleville Elementary School. Kheiralla will begin her fourth term, while Salinardi will take office in July. Marc Morello finished third and Starla Ciarelli finished fourth; Cara Robertson did not seek reelection.

Salinardi, a 16-year district resident in Shawangunk, is a former U.S. Marine and retired New York State Trooper who now works for Orange County Emergency Services. Ciarelli is a principal in the Florida Union Free School District and a former Pine Bush High School teacher with 22 years in education. The next board will oversee a district budget that reaches into staffing, transportation, special education, building operations, athletics and extracurriculars, so the election will help determine how those priorities are balanced as the 2026-27 year begins. The result also followed last year’s vote, when residents approved a $149,849,943 budget with 65 percent support.