Jim Planck is reporting in The Daily Mail the Catskill school district Board of Education has adopted a $40.1 million budget for the 2015-16 school year. Despite a reduction of nearly $1 million in total spending, the tax levy will increase 1.94 percent under the plan. Changes in staffing and programming for the coming year include the addition of a first grade teacher, an elementary instrumental music teacher, a high school special education teacher, two high school special education teaching assistants, and an additional high school monitor. The district will create an instrumental music program for students in fourth and fifth, and possibly third grade, during the coming year. The district will also reduce the middle and high school after-school bus run four days a week, but add an after-school run for the elementary school. A public hearing on the budget will be held May 6. The annual school board election and budget vote will be held statewide on May 19. Read the full story in The Daily Mail.