East Williston budget, reserve spending OK’d, Kamberg re-elected

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East Williston budget, reserve spending OK’d, Kamberg re-elected
East Williston school board President Mark Kamberg (pictured in 2017) awaits the governor's decision on schools reopening. (Photo by Rebecca Anzel)

East Williston school district voters on Tuesday approved a total of $59 million in spending for the next school year and elected the school board president to a fourth term.

The district’s $58.3 million 2017-18 budget passed 383 votes to 68, and a proposition to spend $1 million in reserves on building projects passed 387-64.

Mark Kamberg, the school board president first elected in 2008, will serve another three-year term after winning re-election unopposed with 382 votes.

Kamberg is finishing his seventh year as school board president and said he would gladly serve an eighth if the rest of the school board supports him.

“It’s an incredible feeling” being re-elected to the board, Kamberg said. “The goodness never goes away.”

The budget raises revenue from property taxes by 0.98 percent, less than the maximum of 1.48 percent allowed this year under the state’s tax cap law.

School district officials touted their effort to make the budget’s spending increase one of the lowest in at least the past decade while continuing to expand the district’s curricular offerings.

“Despite tight budgeting, the community clearly knows that investment in schools is a priority as it’s good for our children and our community as a whole,” Kamberg said.

The $1 million in spending from a capital reserve fund will pay for fixes to a security vestibule, landscaping, new parking pavers along some of Downing Road and updates to the North Side School’s baseball fields and basketball courts.

The district has in recent years increased its use of capital reserves to reduce the amount of borrowing for building projects.

Residents have voted to spend or save more than $15 million in capital reserve funds since 2013.

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