Port Washington school leaders present budget reductions and prioritize class-size, safety and instructional additions

Port Washington Union Free School District administrators told the Board of Education on March 11 that they have closed most of a rollover budget gap and asked trustees to authorize further work to find roughly $800,000 in reallocations so the district can pursue health-and-safety upgrades and instructional priorities, including elementary class‑size reductions.

The presentation, delivered by district staff during the board’s second budget workshop, laid out a plan to keep the budget within the district’s allowable tax levy while seeking funds for three priority areas: health and safety, instructional programs and operational efficiencies.

Administrators said state aid decreased compared with last year, creating the largest driver of the gap. “This decrease was over a million dollars compared to what was budgeted last year,” administrator statements said, and the reduction in state aid accounted for roughly 80% of the budget shortfall the administration has been closing.

District administrators described three lines of work to close the gap: trimming expenditures and contractual redundancies, bringing some services in‑house, and selectively adding positions if money can be found. Dr. Shields said, “Tonight is budget workshop session number 2. Our goal is to give you an update on how we've reduced the budget to stay within the allowable tax levy and…