Florida, GWL, Tuxedo pass school budgets

Incumbents returned to boards Voters in the school districts surrounding Warwick approved their school budgets Tuesday. In each contest, though, the budgets were passed by small margins. In Florida, the difference between yes and no voters was just 36 votes. The district’s $15.2 million budget is an increase of 5.72 percent. Voters returned John T. Redman II and Deborah Slesinski to the school board, as they defeated challenger Blaine Alverez-Backus. The margin in Greenwood Lake was even less, with just 22 more ‘yes’ votes than ‘no.’ Taxpayers will see an increase of 8 percent with this $20,338,477 budget. The three incumbents will remain on the school board for the next three years. John Finn, Kathy Gilson, and Laura Williams were the top three vote getters in the four-way race, defeating Stephen Wheat. Tuxedo voters approved the district’s $15.4 million budget by 71 votes with 481 voters going to the polls Tuesday. This increases the budget 5.28 percent over last year’s. All three incumbent board members — Shawn Brown, Diana Petrosky and Robert Yates — were returned to the board, defeating challengers Glenn LeBar and Pauline Deuerlein.