Gardner Dickinson School, the only school in the Wynantskill Central School District, will host a public vote Tuesday from noon to 9 p.m. on whether the school should be annexed by Troy.
Tyler A. McNeil/Times Union
NORTH GREENBUSH — On Tuesday, Wynantskill school district residents will vote on whether to give up their school district and have it annexed by the Troy City School District.
They are being asked whether Troy can annex the one-building school district. Troy would continue to operate the K-8 school and has proposed increasing staff and embarking on a large-scale renovation project.
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The vote will be held from noon to 9 p.m. at Gardner-Dickinson School, 25 East Ave.
The state would support the effort with $241 million if the annexation is approved. The state would also fund 98% of all capital projects. That means a $10 million project would cost Troy $200,000.
What happens if voters say “yes”
Wynantskill would use savings to plug a budget gap for the 2026-2027 year instead of increasing taxes.
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Troy has committed to reducing property taxes by 5% in the first year and then not increasing taxes for four years. Troy’s tax rate is slightly lower than Wynantskill’s.
Troy has offered to put money each year into a savings account to pay for high school choice for every student currently enrolled in Wynantskill. (Currently, students at Wynantskill can choose to go to high school in Troy, East Greenbush, Brunswick or Averill Park, with the Wynantskill district paying their tuition.)
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Averill Park High School option
The annexation vote would not affect Wynantskill students who are already enrolled at Averill Park High School.
Averill Park officials initially said they would not continue to admit new freshmen from the town if the district is annexed by Troy, but in January, the school board decided that current Wynantskill district eighth graders could select Averill Park.
The school board indicated it would not allow such choices for future classes. The board said in a statement that it was allowing current eighth graders to select Averill Park partly because they needed to make a selection before the annexation vote.
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Also, the board said, the school would likely be in “transition” next year, “which means Wynantskill will still exist for the 2026-2027 school year. As a result, the current eighth-grade students would not have an in-district high school option next year, which makes school choice logical.”
What happens if voters say “no”
The school board has not yet finalized the 2026-2027 budget, but is considering a proposal to increase the tax levy by 6.4%.
That is well over the tax cap and would require a supermajority to vote in favor when the public casts its ballots on the school budget this spring. Most of those votes fail statewide.
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At current spending, the district will run out of savings in two to three years, according to the superintendent.
This year, the budget shortfall was $578,813, which was covered by the district’s savings. Next year’s budget shortfall is projected to be $608,910.
The district has cut staff as enrollment has fallen steadily.
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Enrollment this year was 303 students. The district added pre-kindergarten in 2018-2019, leading to a peak of 384 students.