TOWNSHEND — Voters in the Leland & Gray Union High School District towns of Townshend, Brookline, Jamaica, Newfane, and Brookline will vote by Australian ballot on Wednesday, Feb. 2, to adopt or reject the 2011-12 budget of $6,328,984.
The budget had been previously proposed and approved by a majority of members of the union district school board.
Polls will be open in town offices in Brookline and Townshend (9 a.m.), and Jamaica and Windham (10 a.m.). Newfane residents will cast their ballots at the NewBrook Fire House on Route 30 starting at 9 a.m. All polling places will close at 7 p.m.
The budget is nearly level-funded, with some cuts and substitutions to certain academic programs. It will require no increase in property taxes.
“The budget reflects the fiscal realities (and educational hopes) for the Leland & Gray community,” said LGUHS Principal Dorinne Dorfman.
Those departments and programs facing reductions, she said, reflect low student enrollment and “fiscal restraints.”
Teachers of certain classes in art, foreign language, health, music, and family and consumer science will experience some reduction in their hours, Dorfman said, but no faculty members have been dismissed.
Two classes - music theory and a middle school health class - will be discontinued.
“What is lost here is student convenience,” said Windham Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Steven B. John. “The proposal considers 38 teachers. No retirements are required.”
Absentee ballots are now available at the town clerks' offices in the LGUHS district.