Carle Place Board of Education trustees presented a $58 million first draft of a proposed district budget for the 2025-26 academic year at their recent meeting Feb. 6.
The proposed $58,689,234 indicates a 2.63% rise from the current year’s budget of $57,186,018. The 2024-25 budget had increased by over 4% from the previous year.
The district said that 81.7% of the school’s budget is comprised of property taxes. The remaining 18.3% comes from multiple other areas, including funding from the state. According to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s January proposal, the Carle Place School District is expected to receive $6,529,389, a 2% increase from the 2024-25 academic year. The district said that represents 10.9% of its proposed budget.
The district reported that its tax levy is $47,960,443 for the upcoming school year, representing a 2.37% increase from this year. That number is equal to the allowable tax levy cap determined by the state.
The district listed several drivers for the budget increase, with the most prominent being higher mandated costs. These include insurance policies, legal fees, transportation, audit services, and utilities. The district is setting aside an additional $625,267 for these costs for the 2025-26 year. The district lists contracts, equipment, materials and supplies as other budget inflators as well.
The biggest expense that the district anticipates for the 2025-26 year is for salary and benefits – making up 76.3% of the amount. Trustees also allocated 17.1% for mandated costs with the remaining percentage saved for everything else.
The school district will have community members vote on the finalized budget on Tuesday, May 20.
