Three Village board adopts 2025‑26 budget after removing later secondary start‑time plan; fourth‑grade IG cut remains

The Three Village Central School District Board of Education on April 9 adopted the district’s recommended 2025‑26 budget and property tax report card while voting to remove a previously approved plan to delay middle‑ and high‑school start times.

Deputy Superintendent Jeffrey Carlson told the board that the budget the trustees approved complies with the state tax‑levy limit and uses a set of staffing and program reductions to close the gap between projected revenues and rising costs. “When the board adopts…what they’re adopting is the dollar amount of the expenditures,” Carlson said during the presentation on the budget process.

Why it matters: the adopted budget increases total spending by 0.84% year‑over‑year and sets a 2.78% increase in the tax levy, officials said. Administrators and board members said the package is designed to fit the district’s tax‑cap calculation and projected state aid but requires cuts that will raise average elementary class sizes and reduce some program staffing.

Budget details and district rationale Administrators said the district faced higher costs for health insurance, retirement contributions and vendor contracts that together drove the need for cuts and program changes. Carlson and other administrators described the sequence of choices that produced the final dollar amount: a reduction in planned capital projects from $3.0 million to $1.5 million lowered the…