Grand Island voters reject school budget, vehicle purchases in close vote

Story and photo by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Grand Island voters voted down the proposed $81,685,805 school budget for 2026-27 on Tuesday. The vote was 1,352 against the budget, and 1,280 in favor. Voters also turned down proposition two: $672,000 for the purchase of vehicles. The vote was 1,334 against the proposition, and 1,280 in favor.

The school district had proposed purchasing two 66-passenger buses at a cost of $174,850 each, one 29-passenger bus at a cost of $118,176, one 20-passenger wheelchair bus at a cost of $146,387, and one Ford Transit 350 cargo van for buildings and grounds at a cost of $57,700.

A total of 2,647 voters cast their ballots. This includes 72 voters who cast absentee ballots.

Eric Fiebelkorn, who posted on Facebook about the election results, explained, “I've been tracking voter turnout and results for the school budget and other elections since I moved here. Today was the second-largest turnout over the last 20 years and the second time over the past 24 years (since I have been tracking the data) that the budget has failed.”

The last time Grand Island voters rejected a school budget was in 2005. According to a 2005 article in IsleDeGrande, the vote was 1,153 in favor, and 1,890 opposed. In addition, the proposition for vehicle purchases was also voted down. After a revote on a modified budget a month later, the budget passed by the vote of 2,141 in favor and 1,134 against. The proposition for vehicle purchases was also passed in the second vote.

Jim Mulcahy and Mike Madigan won in a close vote for Board of Education trustees.

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In addition to the budget vote, two candidates from a field of four were elected to the Board of Elections. Mike Madigan, who received 1,334 votes, and Jim Mulcahy (1,335 votes) were elected to three-year terms as trustees. Incumbent Sue Marson received 1,230 votes, and Liz Goss received 1,201 votes.

Madigan said, “All four candidates worked their tails off. Obviously, two won, and two lost. It’s great that we had a contest and a choice for the voters. I look forward to engaging with the entire team within the school district and getting involved. So, it’s going to be interesting.”

When asked about the budget defeat, Grand Island Central School District Superintendent Dr. Brian Graham said, “We want to analyze the results and make a plan moving forward. I guess what we will do is to take a look and decide if we will make any changes to the budget and work with the Board of Education to determine if we need to do any more analysis, any more changes, or accept the contingency budget, which means that we need to cut $1.2 million from the current budget.

“I think that the school district, along with the Board of Education, created a budget that was lean. We asked for a 2.69% increase in the tax levy, which, for a $397,000 home would have been $127. So, the community said, ‘No, thank you,’ to that. We will have to decide if we’re going to make any changes to the budget or if we’re going to cut $1.2 million.”