The Port Washington Board of Education outlined its budget priorities and how to close a $1 million budget gap during its second budget presentation for the 2025-2026 school year.
Board members and district administrators discussed at the board of education meeting on Tuesday, March 11, how the district could cut costs to close the $1.2 million budget gap that the district said exists partly due to an over $1 million reduction in state aid.
The district’s tax levy limit is 3.39%, and Interim Superintendent Christopher Shields said the district still plans to keep the budget below the tax cap. Shields also said the district’s budget isn’t finalized and can still change until the board approves it on April 22.
“We’re at a much better place than we expected to be now, at this time last year,” said Board of Education President Adam Smith. “So I think that [for] a lot of things, we got lucky in a lot of ways [this year].”
The board identified potential savings of $1,285,000 by removing redundancies and creating efficiencies in spending across the district. The district could save around $170,000 by reducing budget redundancies and save around $123,000 by changing transportation contracts, like purchasing a new bus rather than contracting as many district vehicles.
In addition to closing the current gap, administrators also identified health, safety, instructional and efficiency priorities when considering the 2025-2026 school year budget, which would increase the budget by at least $800,000.
The cost of health and safety upgrades would be around $100,000, with $30,000 going toward installing 10 air conditioning units per year over the next three years. Other potential expenditures include new automated external defibrillators and device charging stations for first and second grades.
Roughly $650,000 in budget increases would go toward instructional needs, with more than $360,000 going toward hiring three new faculty members. The district said their top priority for faculty hires would be elementary school teachers, followed by hiring a guidance counselor at Weber Middle School and a financial literacy teacher at Schreiber High School.
The hiring of a district administrator would also cost nearly $200,000.
The remaining $90,000 in instructional needs would go toward middle and high school science departments, field trips, disability awareness speakers and a junior varsity cheerleading team at the high school.
Shields said he hopes to reduce elementary school class sizes by one student below the district’s limit, which is 23 for kindergarten through second grade and 26 for third through fifth grade.
Kathleen Manuel, the assistant superintendent of business, said adding more items to the budget would be challenging due to budget constraints.
After the budget presentation, the board also approved an election to take place in June for Schreiber High School students to vote for a student board member.
The Port Washington Board of Education will host its third budget presentation, where they will discuss funding options for the potential $800,000 budget increase, on Tuesday, March 25 at the Schreiber High School auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
