May’s school board elections and budgets votes saw only two school districts countywide reject their budget propositions: West Babylon and Sachem Central.
Both budgets were slated to pierce the tax cap. Sachem’s budget would have carried a 4.87% tax levy increase. Since the budget would have pierced the tax cap, 60% of voters were required to vote in favor of it. Although it received a majority of support, it still fell largely short of the 60% threshold.
The failure of the May budget triggered a budget revote for June 18 at Samoset Middle School.
The new budget passed with 3,355 votes with 1,573 against – a 68%-32% margin. The district is home to over 86,000 residents and contains over 12,000 students.
The budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year comes in the form of $374,374,186 and carries a 1.92% tax levy increase. This is compliant with the district’s tax cap.
The estimated monthly increase to taxpayers is $10.35 for Brookhaven residents, $11.33 to Islip residents, and $10.67 to Smithtown residents.
“Following the defeat of our budget on May 21, the district faced tough decisions as we worked diligently to reduce expenditures,” the district said in their newsletter ahead of the vote. “While we navigated these budgetary constraints, our commitment to providing quality education remained unwavering. We understand the importance of maintaining programs such as core curriculum and support services for our students. Therefore, our budget reductions were strategic, with the goal of minimizing the impact on these essential areas. Those reductions, coupled with a $12.6 million allocation of reserves and fund balance, were the driving forces behind our ability to create a tax- cap compliant budget.”
The passage of the revote budget avoids the implementation of the contingency budget, which would have required, under state law, that the tax levy increase be capped at 0%. This would have required the district to make a further $9,226,000 in reductions.
Administrative costs increased by 0.29%. These costs include the Board of Education, Central and Administration, Business Administration and Finance, Personnel and Communications, Security, Safety, and Data Processing, Districtwide Insurance and BOCES, Curriculum and Instruction, and Benefits. The total administrative costs for this fiscal year are $30,716,384, an increase of nearly $90,000 over last year.
Program costs have increased 2.89%. Program costs consist of Personnel and Communication, Curriculum and Instruction, Special Education, Servicing Pupils with Special Needs, Occupational Education, Special Programs, Instructional Media, Pupil Services, District Transportation, Benefits, and Interfund Transfers. The total price tag on these services comes out to $293,529,956, an increase of more than $8 million over last year.
Capital Expenditures saw the highest net change of 4.59%. These include Buildings and Grounds, Purchase of Buses, Benefits, Bonded Indebtedness, and Capital Projects. These account for $50,127,846 of the budget, an increase of almost $2.2 million over last year.
As far as revenues, the district is seeing a 2.89% increase from last year. The passed budget revenues account for $374,374,186. The district saw a 1.86% increase in State Aid, worth $139,316,158. The property tax levy of 1.92% carries an additional $4 million in revenue, $211,851,459 total.
According to various sources, the passed budget will see the reduction of twenty-one jobs, adding onto the seventy cuts revealed in May. The cutbacks will increase elementary class sizes by about one student per class. The budget will also eliminate sixth-grade foreign language classes.
“This was a very challenging process, but we are pleased to be able to continue to provide the type of quality education our students and families have grown accustomed to,” said Christopher Pellettieri, the Sachem superintendent, in a statement released after Tuesday’s vote. “Now we can move forward planning for the 2024-25 school year and beyond.”
With the budget approvals in Sachem and West Babylon, all 124 public school districts on Long Island are set to enter the next fiscal year with voter-approved budget plans. The next school year begins July 1.
The two districts are among seventeen across the state that passed their budgets on revote. The only district in New York that failed on its second round of vote was the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Central School District in the Albany area.
Sachem’s Tuesday evening vote was conducted with paper ballots, as the Suffolk County Board of Elections said that electronic machines were unavailable due to the upcoming primary elections next week.
