HFCS Raises Senior Exemption Income Limits

by Alex Brooks
At its meeting on January 21, the Hoosick Falls School Board approved new, higher income limits for the Senior Citizen exemptions from school property tax. This will allow more seniors to qualify for the exemptions. Until now the upper limits of income to qualify in Rensselaer County were $15,000 for the 50% exemption, up to $23,400 for the 5% exemption. In Washington County limits were $1,000 higher. The new limits in both counties are these:
• Under $29,000 annual income qualifies for a 50% exemption;
• 29 to 30k gets 45%;
• 30 to 32k gets 40%;
• 32 to 32.9k gets 35%;
• 32.9 to 33.8k gets 25%;
• 33.8 to 34.7k gets 20%;
• 34.7 to 35.6k gets 15%;
• 35.6 to 36.5k gets 10%;
• 36.5 to 37.4k gets 5%.
The limits were also raised for those with disabilities using the same limits as the seniors. These exemptions do not change the amount of money collected by the District – tax breaks given through these exemptions are made up by the rest of the taxpayers.
These exemptions are available to senior citizens 65 years of age or older if they own and live in their homes. For details, contact your local assessor.
Climbing Wall
The agenda for the meeting contained a motion to accept the low bid for a Climbing Wall to be installed in the elementary gymnasium at a cost of $26,855. This bid was received from Everlast Climbing Industries last December 7. Board Member Don Skott expressed concern that this expenditure might be viewed as an extravagance at a time when so many people are having trouble paying their property taxes. In deference to Skott’s concerns, and because two Board members, Rye Mausert and Bridget Foster, were not present, the matter was tabled until the next meeting. Superintendent Ken Facin said he would provide a Powerpoint® presentation detailing the benefits of the climbing wall and with that information, and all Board members present, the whole Board will be able to make a fully informed decision on whether to go forward with the purchase.
Improving Student Results
Superintendent Facin talked about the ways in which his team is working to improve student results. He described a meeting of Department Coordinators in which they set student result goals and discussed methods of achieving them and a half-day session with Dr. Loomis of the Rensselaerville Institute to further their understanding of the results-oriented Get To Great program which Dr. Loomis spearheads. Dr. Loomis is the former Superintendent of the Bethlehem Schools. This is Hoosick Falls’ second year in the Get to Great program.
Presentations
High School Librarian Martha Von Schilgen gave a demonstration of new ways that students can do research using the high school library web page. From their home computers students can access the card catalog for the high school library to find a book and can access articles in databases that the District subscribes to such as Gale or ProQuest or the Grolier online encyclopedia as well as other online resources.
The fourth grade team described the Reading Counts program which has been successful in encouraging kids to read more. In this program, kids read books and take quizzes on them on a computer. The results are compiled for all the participants by the computer system, which enables administrators to keep track of progress for the grade as a whole and gather information about how much and how well the kids are reading. The fourth grade team has promoted the program and challenged the kids to reach levels of achievement that would qualify them for awards, which are given out in an assembly.
Telephone & Internet
Services Bids Accepted
The Board awarded the Internet Services Contract for next year to Cornerstone Telephone company for $21,793, and the Web Hosting Services contract to SchoolWorld for $500 per year. The Telephone Services bid also was awarded to SchoolWorld for $5 per month per line, a penny a minute for local calling and 3 cents per minute for regional and state-to-state calling. These bids were opened January 7.
Next Meeting
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Hoosick Falls School Board will be February 11 at 7 pm in the High School library.