The Island Trees School District addressed solutions for its six-figure deficit at the board of education’s meeting on Wednesday, April 9.
The district has yet to announce its total proposed budget for the 2025-26 academic year.
The district said that as of Wednesday’s meeting, the proposed 2025-2026 budget is $611,165 over the tax cap and has a remaining budget of $422,895 after the remaining expenses.
The district had put in its meeting agenda for Wednesday that it would be voting to approve the budget, but the board said at the meeting that the vote would instead be held on April 23.
The superintendent of schools, Charles Murphy, distributed a letter at the meeting outlining the district’s plan for the surplus, which included “one-time purchases.”
These improvements include secondary classroom air conditioning for $250,000, school furniture for $110,512, gym curtains for $52,500, and a wrestling mat for $15,000.
“We put an extra 1,300,000 dollars in reserves last year,” said Murphy. “This year we are on target to have more than enough to appropriate for next year foreseeing any emergencies.”
In New York, a budget can only allocate a maximum of 4% to reserves per year per the state Board of Education. Spending the tax cap on infrastructure improvements is a stay under the maximum amount allotted to reserves.
Those improvements total $428,012, and with a small infusion of reserves, the district can fund those projects and be within the tax cap. If the district receives additional funding from the state of New York, the board noted they may reallocate funds towards staffing additional classrooms across the district.
Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed Island Trees receive $27,597,654 in state aid for the 2025-2026 school year, a 12.3% increase from the $24,580,776 received last year,
The district operated with a $79,947,373 budget for the 2024-25 school year, which increased 2.58% from the 2023-2024 school year and had a 2.05% increase in the tax levy.
