Hicksville Board of Education trustees discussed a first draft of a proposed district budget for the 2025-26 academic year at their recent meeting on Feb. 12.
The board did not release a total amount for its proposal, and will instead unveil information to the public about the budget gradually.
The initial budget discussions were held on Feb. 5. The next budget meeting will be on March 5, with the others coming on March 19 and 26. A final proposed budget is set to be reviewed on April 2 before being adopted on April 23 by the board. Hicksville community members will be able to vote on the 2025-26 budget on May 20.
The district reported that the board of education budget would be $114,731, the district clerk budget would be $1,000, the district meeting budget would be $52,868 and the chief school administrator budget would be $416,254 for the upcoming school year.
Business administration is set to see a $14,733 increase to $681,490. Auditing will also go up to $374,763, the district treasurer to $162,618 and purchasing to 219,932 next year. The district has also set aside $510,000 for legal services, $901,366 for personnel services and $223,311 for public information in the budget.
The district also included information on its facility costs for the upcoming school year, totaling $15,402,951 which includes over $5 million set aside for custodial purposes. The presentation also shows the district saving over $57,500 in utility costs next year.
The board listed a number of maintenance projects across the district scheduled for the next academic year which come with a cost of $1,293,000.
The district has $1,471,260 set aside for insurance with another $1,446,260 dedicated for “unallocated insurance.” The presentation shows that the $218,040 increase in the budget for unallocated insurance is because of additional cyber insurance.
The district also allocated $2,642,500.00 for debt services which will go towards payments for three bonds that were voted on between 2019 and 2021.
The district’s transportation costs are also expected to increase in 2025-26, as it proposes $10,078,122.00 to be set aside for it. The district is projected to save $675,778.00 on transportation for non-public schools, but the overall cost is still expected to increase by $387,208.94.
According to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s January proposal, the Hicksville School District is expected to receive $$43,369,108 which is a 6.4% increase from this year.
Hicksville Superintendent Theodore Fulton said the initial reporting in the governor’s budget showed a larger number for the district, which was due to the calculation being done in the middle of the school year. He said the school is expected to receive $42,594,488 in state aid for the upcoming school year, translating to a 3.9% increase from this year.
The state budget will be approved in April before the finalization of the district’s budget.
The Hicksville School District operated with a $173,222,743 budget for the 2024-25 academic year.
