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Lynnbrook administration presents balanced 2025-26 budget after closing $225,000 gap
Summary
District leaders told the Board of Education they closed a roughly $225,000 shortfall through expense reductions and increased use of reserves, while warning state and federal aid remain uncertain.
The Lynnbrook Union Free School District on March 12 presented a balanced 2025-26 budget after closing a gap of about $225,000, district officials told the Board of Education.
Superintendent Dr. Michelle Lynch said the district had at one point planned to delay adoption but worked with staff and the teachers' association to produce a balanced expense plan. “We normally … at one point said we weren't gonna adopt in March,” Lynch said, noting the district closed the deficit without cutting positions or piercing the tax cap.
Business official James Press outlined specific measures that closed the shortfall. “The gap was about 225,000 as of last week,” Press said. He cited $118,000 in savings from consolidating kindergarten bus routes and matron coverage and a conservative insurance adjustment of roughly $7,000 after correcting building square footage reported to the insurer. Press also said the district would increase use of its TRS reserve by $100,000 to close the remaining difference.
The administration emphasized contingency planning because state and federal funding remain uncertain. Lynch and Press said the district cannot rely on an on-time New York State budget and that federal proposals (including proposed IDEA funding changes) were being monitored. “What we will do … if we get more revenue from the state, we can come back and present to you a revised revenue budget,” Press said.
Board members praised the administration and the teachers' association for cooperation. Trustee remarks noted the district had reduced a much larger projected shortfall from earlier in the process; one board member compared the progress from “2 plus million to 200,000,” praising staff and union cooperation.
The presentation included questions about federal funding and program impacts. Press said an Association of School Business Officials federal update had not signaled immediate cuts that would become definitive, though House proposals had included large IDEA reductions that advocates expected not to survive final reconciliation.
The district’s next steps are to finalize the expense budget for the public vote in May and to watch the state budget process; if additional aid arrives, the administration said it would consider lowering the use of reserves and present adjustments to the board.
The board took no separate formal adoption vote in the minutes of this transcript; the presentation and questions were recorded in the meeting minutes.
