TUPPER LAKE -- Tupper Lake Central School District will present a $16,035,269 budget to taxpayers later this month.

The spending plan calls for a tax levy -- the amount to be raised by taxes -- of $6,086,232, an increase of 3.62 percent, said Business Manager Garry Lanthier.

"The main focus of the budgeting process was to preserve programs in place, which it does, and also to present a budget we felt, hopefully, the taxpayers will support."

Cost savings due to attrition kept spending down, Lanthier said.

One physical-education teacher is retiring this year, and those duties were absorbed into the schedule.

Another teaching position was filled with a teaching assistant.

Final tax rates have not been set, since Tupper Lake is in a difficult revaluation process that remains under discussion.

Lanthier said the tax rates likely would not be determined until the tax rolls are completed in August.

State aid to Tupper Lake was increased by $377,331 for the coming school year.

But fuel costs were budgeted at 30 percent above current spending, which was up 30 percent from the year before, Lanthier said.

A proposition on the ballot asks voters to spend not more than $220,000 to purchase two school buses and a driver's education car. Lanthier said the costs to buy new vehicles would be partially offset by trade-in on used vehicles.

Two seats on the School Board are open, with Michael Dechene and Patrick Facteau, both incumbents, seeking re-election to three-year terms.

District voting is noon to 8 p.m. May 20 at Tupper Lake High School, 25 Chaney Ave.

kdedam@pressrepublican.com