Riverhead budget presentation: $9.9 million proposed increase; charter tuition drives costs

Riverhead Central School District Assistant Superintendent for Business Dr. Mary Ann Cartosano presented the second budget review for fiscal 2025–26 on March 18, telling the Board of Education the district’s proposed spending increase is $9.9 million, or 4.95 percent, yielding a maximum tentative budget of $211,434,000 and leaving the district’s property tax levy within the 2.16 percent tax-cap calculation.

Cartosano said the district expects about $4.9 million in state aid and an additional roughly $700,000 tied to special-education funding, but that rising costs in several lines leave the budget pressured. “Out of the $9,900,000, $7,700,000 is going directly to instructional programs within the school district,” Cartosano said. She told the board that $2.6 million of that instructional increase is not for in-district students but is charter school tuition.

Why it matters: the presentation identified three large, recurring cost drivers that the administration said will affect the district’s near-term finances: charter school tuition, out-of-district special-education placements (BOCES), and increased support-staff salaries and benefits. Cartosano said those lines together already left the administration roughly $918,000 over initial…