Ted Remsnyder is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media voters in the Coxsackie-Athens school district will be asked May 17, to approve a proposed $34.7 million budget for the 2022-23 school year. The school board adopted the proposal at its April 12 meeting. The spending plan represents is an increase of just under $712,000, or 2.09 percent, over the current year's budget. The tax levy will increase 2.92 percent in the coming year. Board of Education President Michael Donahue said Ryan Palmer, the district’s administrator of business and finance, crafted the budget with input from the administration, with the school board also launching its own budget committee to help shape the plan. The proposed budget includes funding for the addition of five paraprofessionals, a full-time counselor, a seasonal groundskeeper, a full-time teacher for grades 7-12 and a full-time fitness room coordinator. The school board president said he hopes the community will support the spending plan when they go to the polls next month. “It’s been a positive experience and I hope that the folks that vote agree with us and pass it and we can go ahead,” Donahue said. “We’re adding people and there have been some years where you’re not in that position and you’re looking at where to cut. That’s really tough to look at that. But we’re not in that position.” Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.