Melanie Lekocevic is reporting for Capital Region Independent Media the Greenville board of education is looking to propose to district voters a nearly $33.7 million budget for the 2022-23 school year. School officials presented the program component of the preliminary spending plan at the February 28 board meeting. The proposal represents a 2.43 percent increase of the district's current budget of $32.89 million and would carry a 2.35 percent tax levy increase. Superintendent Tammy Sutherland said there are still some financial details coming in that could change the bottom line. She said several staff members have announced their impending retirement, which would lead to cost savings in the budget. “At this point, we have seven individuals retiring and that breakage is just over $292,000, so that’s a savings to the budget,” Sutherland said. Elementary school enrollment is expected to remain steady at 474 students this year and 476 next year, and the student population is expected to drop slightly in the middle school, from 256 this year to 233 next year. But those figures will be offset by a slight rise in the number of high school students, from 355 this year to 369 next year. Overall, the student K-12 enrollment is will remain steady, declining only slightly from 1,085 this year to 1,078 next year. During the 2022-23 school year, 88 students are expected to be home schooled, compared to 53 in 2019-20, before COVID. The budgets for technology purchases and contracts, and for BOCES service requests for specialized programming like Tech Valley, New Visions and Career-Tech, will increase; while the spending plan for pupil personnel services and districtwide equipment purchases will decrease. The funding for the athletics and physical education department will remain steady. The board of education is expected to vote on the tentative budget at its April 11 meeting. A public hearing on the spending plan will be conducted May 3. The annual budget vote and board of education election will be held from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., May 17, in the Scott M. Ellis Elementary School cafeteria. Read the full story at TheUpStater [dot] com.