The Scotia-Glenville Board of Education adopted a spending plan that will expand accelerated learning in the middle grades while maintaining most existing programs district-wide.

Voters will be asked to approve a budget of $42.01 million, with a tax levy of about $23.2 million and a state aid package of $16.2 million. The vote will be May 16.

The tax levy would increase 3.7 percent under the proposed budget and based on current assessments, property owners could expect taxes to rise less than 3 percent. A district business administrator said an accurate tax rate will be impossible to predict until a townwide reassessment is settled.

In the current year, a taxpayer with an average home assessed at $100,000 pays a school tax bill of about $2,914.

The budget includes a controversial change that will effectively return tracking to the middle grades.

The district has long hosted an advanced science-mathtechnology program in the middle grades, but no equivalent existed for advanced English instruction.

On Monday, board members approved changes in the budget that will introduce advanced English study in all three middle grades. Implementation of the Young Scholars program in the sixth grade will cost about $20,000, while an accelerated English class in the seventh and eighth grades will cost $12,000.

District administrators predict that nearly three-quarters of the students enrolled in the existing math science and technology program will also be eligible for the English program. By scheduling three classes together, the students will naturally fall into the same social studies class, creating a de facto honors track in all four core academic courses.

The seventh grade will also be offered daily foreign language study, at a cost of $22,398.

The board also approved minor changes offered by Superintendent Susan Swartz over her original budget, including elimination of a proposed special education lead teacher, and scaled back plans for teaching assistants in the elementary school computer lab.

And the board restored some minor proposed cuts to the facilities and equipment budget, field trips, and staff development.

"There really haven’t been dramatic changes," Swartz said.