KLSD: Satisfied with budget plan, board cancels next meeting

KLSD: Chart shows district enrollment from the 2015-16 to the 2025-26 school years.

KLSD: The General Fund budget distribution for 2025-26.

By JEFF MORRIS 

After earlier presentations that focused on overall conditions, and non-instructional and instructional portions of the 2025-26 budget, Assistant Superintendent for Business Lisa Herlihy presented the complete proposed budget at the March 13 board of education meeting.

By the time the presentation was over, the board agreed it did not need to see another presentation on March 20.

Herlihy noted that “projected state aid is set to decrease notably due to significant shifts in assessed value as well as daily attendance or enrollment within our district.” 

She said this has led to reductions in building aid, BOCES aid and transportation aid ratios. The building aid ratio decreased 22.15 percent, and the transportation aid ratio declined 22.51 percent; the net state aid reduction is $839,275.

The proposed budget totals $127,410,469, a $3,091,707 increase from the current $124,318,762. That is a 2.49 percent budget increase, resulting in a 3.29 percent property tax levy increase, which is within the New York state tax cap.

The major increases in the budget are $1,355,057 for benefits, $1,044,439 for net salaries, $324,622 for BOCES hardware replacement, and $284,349 for debt, for a total of $3,008,467. Hardware replacement, said Herlihy, is for iPads and computers, and debt is associated with the district capital project, incorporating additional debt payments over two years approved by voters in the October 2022 Bond Referendum to support significant infrastructure enhancements at all five district schools.

The proposed budget would maintain all current student programming while adding teams to the eighth grade “in a fiscally responsible manner” and continuing to prioritize favorable class sizes, while maintaining support for all students and professional learning.

As in February, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Neill Alleva said they are now asking for another full-time staff position at Increase Miller Elementary due to the size of the incoming fifth-grade class. Another addition to faculty will be made at Katonah Elementary, due to the need to add a third section for the incoming third-grade class. A third addition to full-time faculty is what had been a contingency position that was used late last year at KES, due to confirmed kindergarten registration numbers; that position will now be added to the regular budget, resulting in a reduction in the total of contingency positions from four to three, the same number Alleva had cited in February. 

The contingency positions are, as usual, built into the budget to provide flexibility if it becomes necessary to open additional sections due to changes in enrollment, course requests, or other circumstances.

There is also an addition of 1.0 full-time employee to the John Jay Middle School eighth-grade team; a reduction of one instructional coach and one psychologist. Overall, said Herlihy, there will be estimated and non-replacements through attrition of 4.0 to 6.0 positions, for a tentative net subtotal of 1.0 to 3.0 fewer positions.

As per state education regulations, the fact that the proposed tax levy is at the tax cap means the budget would require only a simple majority to pass.

Trustee Rory Burke said he had thoroughly gone through the budget line by line, and “honestly, it’s such a well thought-through budget.” 

Saying he thought it was a really solid budget, Burke suggested he did not see any need for the board to go through it again the following week; board President Julia Hadlock agreed. The board concurred that they were satisfied with what had been presented so far, and decided not to hold the meeting that had been scheduled for March 20, instead taking the extra week to individually go through the budget and then vote on whether to adopt it Thursday, March 27. That leaves a public budget hearing on May 8 and the budget vote coming up May 20.