Mount Markham 2025-26 Budget Adopted

Mount Markham Central School District residents will vote next month on a budget with a 2 percent increase in the tax levy.

At last week’s MMCSD Board of Education meeting, the $35,726,479 budget for 2025-26 was approved by the Board.

Voting is Tuesday, May 20, from 1 to 8 p.m. at the Elementary School cafeteria.

Also on the ballot will be budgets for the two libraries in the District and candidates for two Board seats.

Superintendent Joe D’Apice said the state tax cap formula allowed the District to go higher than a 2 percent levy increase, but they wanted to be fiscally responsible to residents.

The meeting was the last one for D’Apice, who leaves at the end of this week to become superintendent of the New Hartford Central School District. Earlier in the day, the Mount Markham CSD Foundation had a reception for D’Apice.

D’Apice thanked Board members and others for his five years with Mount Markham, calling it a great journey in a great place.

He was wished well by the Board.

Board member Phil Casler said a little-known story about D’Apice was that he spent hours in the buildings Valentine’s Eve, 2021, measuring classrooms and all spaces to come up with a plan to get everyone back in school during the pandemic. “It was a bold move and the right move,’’ Casler said.

The meeting opened with the Board meeting in executive session for an hour.

Mount Markham Athletic Association Advisors Amy Hoke and Tori Roberts, with students Camryn Donley Mya Hoke, spoke about the student club and their upcoming trip.

The club is for high school athletes, with admission based on points earned for playing sports. They take a leadership position in the District with younger students, raise funds and organize the Senior Sports awards.

The trip, which was approved by the Board, will go over two days in June.

The 24 students going will see a New York Mets game and visit the Empire State Building and then spend a day at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey before arriving home Monday night.

The trip will cost just under $12,000.

Hoke and Roberts outlined various fundraisers that help lower the $433 cost per student.

Upcoming events include a can and bottle drive April 26 ...