The budget carries a $17,757,146 tax levy, a 3.38% increase over the current year’s levy but still under the state-imposed tax cap of 3.45%. A total of 420 votes were cast this year.

The district’s 2024-25 budget is 3% higher than this year’s $21.7 million budget. The majority of the budget will be funded by taxes, with $843,853 pulled from the district’s unassigned fund balance. Tax rates would be around $5.61 per $1,000 in assessed value in both North Elba and Wilmington, up from last year’s rate of $5.44 per $1,000 in assessed value in North Elba and down from $6.79 per $1,000 in assessed value in Wilmington. This means a person with a home assessed at $300,000 in either town could expect to pay $1,683 in school taxes next year. Tax rates will be finalized in August.

Voters approved 342-74, or 81.4%, the purchase of three gas-powered school buses. District officials have said that the tax levy increase is a “direct result” of the bus purchases. LPCSD currently leases its buses on three- to five-year cycles, but with a state deadline to switch to exclusively purchasing electric buses on the horizon, the school board opted to purchase buses instead as a way to operate with a hybrid fleet.

A $634 increase in Wilmington’s public library funding was approved 381-34.

Elected to the school board were Colleen Locke, who ran unopposed for reelection, and Don Mellor, who ran unopposed to fill the current board president Dan Cash’s seat. Cash, who has served on the board since 2020, opted not to run for reelection. Locke and Mellor will serve three-year terms that expire in June 2027.

Locke, who earned 351 votes, has been the owner and administrator of Kids R Us Early Learning Center in Saranac Lake since 1997 and has served on the LPCSD school board since 2018 when she was appointed to fill the seat vacated by Linda O’Leary.

Mellor, who earned 352 votes, is a climber, writer, outdoor guide and retired educator. A 1971 graduate of Northwood School, he returned to his alma mater for a 43-year-long career there as a teacher, school counselor and climbing instructor. In the community, Mellor has also worked with the Lake Placid Outing Club, the Whiteface Mountain gondola evacuation team, the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s high-angle rescue team and the Samaritan Family Counseling Center.