School board members and superintendents gathered at Questar III on April 10 for a presentation on the BOCES tentative budget at its annual meeting.

District Superintendent Dr. Gladys I. Cruz, Business Office Manager Jennifer Mulligan and Deputy Superintendent Harry Hadjioannou presented information on Questar III’s proposed administrative, rent and capital budget for 2019-20.

The 22 component districts that make up Questar III will vote April 16 on the proposed $6.4 million administrative budget, which is approximately $195,000 below a contingency budget. The actual charge to component districts would be $5.2 million, or 1.39 percent lower than the current year’s charge, due to other revenues that reduce the overall administrative costs for component districts. Other revenues include charges for statewide services and non-component administrative fees, federal indirect and internal service charges, and interest income.

The administrative budget is the only budget school boards vote on each year.

At the meeting, Board President John Hill presented the family of the late Paul Puccio with Questar III’s highest honor – the G. Lucius Cary Annual Service Leadership Award. This was in recognition of Paul’s four decades of volunteer service.

“Paul led by example and personified civility, integrity and thoroughness and was the kind of leader every board of education needs, and every child and school community deserves,” said Hill.


Chairs of Questar III’s four superintendent subcommittees provided updates on special education, career and technical education, school improvement, district services, and advocacy and school and business partnerships. Ultimately, these budgets will depend upon final service requests from districts.

Attendees also watched several videos that highlighted Questar III programs.

Questar III culinary arts students prepared and served a variety of hors d’oeuvres and desserts as part of their CTE program. Students were recognized for their efforts under the direction of Chefs Andrew Ottati and Peter Desmond.

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