Hyde Park board reviews preliminary 2025–26 budget, administrative requests and timeline

Hyde Park Central School District officials presented a preliminary overview of the 2025–26 budget to the Board of Education on Feb. 13 at Violet Avenue Elementary School, outlining revenue assumptions, key cost drivers and a list of administrator requests the district will prioritize before a final proposal is brought to the board in April.

The presentation by Dr. Roman and finance staff summarized the district’s assumptions: the presentation used the governor’s proposal for state aid (about $45,700,000 in the presentation), an estimated tax‑cap scenario (the draft slide showed roughly a 2.7 percent cap if the board chose to use it), and an assumed 8 percent increase in health‑insurance rates for planning. Dr. Roman described the framing for the budget as “making sure that we continue to have our programs and services follow the needs of the students,” and staff emphasized the need to align requests with the district strategic plan.

Why it matters: district officials said the single largest drivers include employee benefits (health insurance), BOCES services (the presentation noted the district pays about $11 million annually to BOCES functions), and debt service. Staff warned the final tax‑cap calculation will depend on finalized debt service figures, pilot agreements and the state budget. The district also noted it…