Voting Exclusively on Paper, Residents Approve Southern Tier School Budgets

Voters in the Southern Tier are giving overwhelming approval to school budgets in the first ever all-remote balloting. 

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Southern Tier school districts saw overwhelming support for their proposed spending plans along with additional spending for things like buses and library services. 

School board members were also elected in the voting earlier this month. 

Districts around New York State mailed ballots to residents to return rather than go to the polls due to health concerns associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

Going into the vote, some poll watchers predicted little trouble getting budgets passed in spite of the hard hit to the economy as a result of the pandemic.  

The quarantine lock-down also forced many families to try to step in to home-school their children or, at least, assist in online teaching the districts implemented.  The new appreciation for the job of teaching, paired with an ad campaign by teachers’ unions were expected to have a positive impact on budget vote outcomes.