Long Island school districts proposing staff cuts, tax-cap overrides and big-ticket projects for 2025-26

On Tuesday, voters across Long Island will go to the polls to determine how much their school districts can spend in the 2025-26 school year and who will sit on their school boards.

In all, about $16.36 billion in school spending is being proposed on the Island, an increase of 3.68% from the current year. The amount collected in school property taxes is projected to rise by $224.65 million, or 2.3%. Many districts will also have propositions on their ballots, as they seek approval for infrastructure projects, property purchases and other initiatives. Some would raise taxes if approved.

Details on these and other issues are presented in the district profiles here, and throughout this Voters Guide.

3 seek to pierce tax cap

The Elwood school district, like others across Long Island, faces a squeeze between inflationary costs and tight tax controls, officials said.

As a result, this mid-size system in Huntington Town is seeking to override its state-imposed tax cap for the 2025-26 school year. Under law, Elwood’s proposed 4.2% tax hike requires a 60% voter majority to pass in Tuesday’s voting.

Lorraine Dunkel, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, has told residents at a series of budget workshops and other meetings that keeping within cap limits could result in cuts to security staff, middle school sports and other areas — all reductions the district is trying to avoid. At a May 8 public hearing, Dunkel had a ready answer when one resident complained taxes charged by the district and other government entities were becoming a burden.

“I understand that every dollar increase for residents can hurt them,” Dunkel said. “And I understand the cost of living for everyone has gone up. Unfortunately, the cost of educating students has gone up rapidly as well.”

Elwood, which enrolls about 2,000 students, is one of three Island districts proposing to bust their tax caps this year. Shelter Island is calling for a 6.97% tax increase and Hicksville has proposed annual increases of 2.54%, 3.31% and 2.97%, respectively, over the next three years.

New York’s cap law took effect in 2012-13 to limit growth in property taxes. Under the cap, annual growth is limited to a baseline of 2% or the inflation rate, whichever is lower. Actual tax increases in individual districts can run higher or lower, however, depending on local financial circumstances.

On the Island, school taxation accounts on average for about two-thirds of homeowners’ tax bills.

Along with its tax hike, Elwood proposes to boost spending by 3.43% to $79,395,286. Should residents reject that plan in the first round of voting, one option for the district would be to hold a revote on a 1.29% tax increase that would be within the cap and require only a simple majority to pass.

Elwood officials said, however, a lower increase would not provide enough extra revenue to keep up with rising costs. For example, instructional expenses, which include contractual raises for teachers, librarians and other professional workers, are due to rise 3.2% next school year, while costs of pensions and other benefits will be up 3.7%, a Newsday analysis found.

Elwood also finds itself in a bind on the revenue side, officials said. One example is the district’s increase in “foundation” aid, the state’s biggest source of funding support, which is limited to 2%. That’s the maximum set by the state for Elwood and more than 60 other districts on the Island where student enrollments are on the decline. Elwood’s enrollment has dropped 18.5% over the past decade.

Michael Kaszubski, an attorney and former school board trustee who attended the hearing earlier this month and spoke to a Newsday reporter, believes there may be signs of resistance against Elwood’s cap-override attempt.

“I’ve heard a lot of rumblings that people are unhappy,” Kaszubski said.

Districts eye staff cuts

About 1 in 4 Island districts has proposed cutting staff, according to district responses to a Newsday budget questionnaire.

South Country’s proposed budget for 2025-26 calls for the elimination of 51.2 positions, including 28 full-time teachers. Smithtown plans to cut 38 teaching positions and two administrative jobs.

Many school officials cited enrollment declines as the main reason driving the trend this budget season. One Kings Park school official wrote the district is reducing 9.8 teacher positions to “right fit” their projected declining enrollment.

District officials also cited rising costs in educating students with special needs, paying for employee health insurance premiums and transporting children.

Across the region, 33 districts said they planned to cut positions, some of which would be done through attrition like retirements and resignations. School officials acknowledged the pain that comes with layoffs but said they had no other options when facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit.

“None of this is ideal. We never want to lose any of these people,” said Kevin Scanlon, superintendent of the Three Village school district. “But it’s simply we can’t afford to pay for all the positions that we have in our budget.”

Three Village, where student enrollment declined from about 6,900 in 2013-14 to 5,500 in 2023-24, plans to eliminate 64.8 positions to help make up a $7.6 million budget shortfall. Those cuts include 22.8 teaching positions and 28 teaching assistants. The district is proposing to raise its tax levy by 2.78%, which is equal to its cap.

Scanlon said health care costs alone increased by $5 million in the past year. “Pharmaceutical costs have gone crazy, and we have had to make some hard choices in order to be able to cover our expenses,” he said.

Some acknowledged the cuts would bring classroom sizes up but said students’ education won’t be affected by having fewer staff. South Country in Brookhaven Town, for example, said “existing programs will be maintained, but may be delivered differently.”

Others have pushed back. Patrick Brady, president of the Bellport Teachers Association in South Country, said the expertise of staff like a school librarian, for example, cannot be easily filled by others and he considered such elimination “a programmatic cut.”

Propositions on the ballot

Dozens of school districts across the Island are asking voters to approve multimillion-dollar propositions for items such as roof repairs, bathroom upgrades and the purchasing of property, among other improvement projects.

In Montauk, the district is asking residents to consider a $38.4 million renovation proposal that would tackle the school’s aging infrastructure and outdated portable classrooms, while expanding its facilities. The plan would add a gymnasium, a science lab and outdoor classrooms, while also renovating rooms and other parts of the building.

“We developed this project to not only repair the issues we have in the building but be proactive in our facilities management to set the district up for success for the future,” Montauk Superintendent Joshua Odom said.

Odom said the overhaul was prompted after the district received a New York State designation of “unsatisfactory” in a required building condition survey.

If the proposition is approved, the district will use $2.9 million from a reserve fund and issue a bond for the rest of the funding that will be financed for 20 to 25 years. The average homeowner would see an increase of about $37 a month in school property taxes, officials said.

In the Valley Stream Central High School District, the community will vote on the purchase of property at 10 Fifth St. for a cost not to exceed $6.4 million, using money from a district Capital Reserve Fund established in May 2018. The building will house the district's central offices and “future in-district career and technical education (CTE) programs,” Superintendent Wayne Loper wrote in a message to the community.

Another proposition calls for the district to appropriate and expend $4.5 million from a fund balance for capital improvement projects such as flood mitigation repairs at Valley Stream South High School, and to convert the district’s central offices to classroom space. The funding includes money for labor, materials, equipment, apparatus and incidental costs, according to the district.

In Locust Valley, residents will vote on a proposition to use $7.3 million from the district’s Capital Reserve Fund to complete projects throughout the district.  Those include reconstruction and improvements to the middle school/high school cafeteria, as well as other infrastructure and security enhancements.

There would be no impact on the tax levy, according to the district.