The Roslyn School District Board of Education held its third budget presentation during its regular meeting on Thursday, March 20. Administrators discussed decreases in state aid and announced a proposed budget that the board will approve in April.
The school’s recommended budget for the 2025-2026 school year is $136,811,323, which is $4,244,153, or 3.2% higher than last year’s budget. Roslyn School District would spend around $40,700 per pupil if the budget remains unchanged.
During the meeting, board members said they’re facing decreases in state aid, one of the monetary drivers for the school budget, next year.
Susan Warren, Roslyn School District assistant superintendent for business and administration, said the district is on track to see decreases in state aid by around 9% for transportation, BOCES, and building expenses.
Despite the lowering in state aid, Roslyn Superintendent Alison Brown said the proposed tax levy would increase by 2.96%, below the cap mandated by the state of 3.26%.
Roslyn Board of Education President Meryl Ben-Levy said that the increasing costs of running the district’s universal pre-k program are projected to be higher than the increase in state aid for universal pre-k, resulting in a .28% increase to the tax levy. Without these costs, the levy would increase by around 2.7%.
“The decrease [in state aid] is like moving the goal post mid-game,” Ben-Levy said. “This is money we’ve already spent counting on consistent state aid with what we have gotten in past years, and this is a drastic drop suddenly. It is fundamentally unfair. Something we would never do to any of our children is mid-game, move the goal post, tell them something, expect them to rely on it, and then when it comes time, tell them it’s a whole other different ball game, that’s not what you do.”
Along with decreases in state aid, board members also said $99,000 that the state owes to the district in prior-year adjustments from 2013 to 2018, but that the state won’t pay them back for a minimum of 16 to 18 years.
While the district owes the state $62,000 in similar prior-year adjustments, board members said the state won’t let them merge what each other owes so that the district could receive $36,000 back.
Numerous faculty and staff retirements are leading to budget savings and preventing the district from piercing its tax cap, as new employees replacing retirees would have lower starting salaries. The district also said higher interest rates and applied reserves will drive the budget costs down.
The next Roslyn School District Board of Education meeting is on Thursday, April 10. At that meeting, the board will vote to adopt the budget, which residents will vote on Tuesday, May 20.
