Huntington UFSD budget draft shows $3.2 million gap; transportation, BOCES and capital projects highlighted

Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Management Services Dr. Ruby Harris presented the Huntington Union Free School District’s draft 2025–26 general fund budget to the Board of Education on the evening of the district meeting, saying the district faces a gap between projected expenses and revenues that officials will try to close in coming weeks.

The presentation outlined that the district’s maximum allowable tax-levy increase under the property tax cap calculation is 3.34 percent and gave a snapshot of scenarios for lower levy increases. Harris said the district calculated that each 0.1 percentage point in levy change equals roughly $117,044. Total revenue for the draft was shown as $156,910,988. The district’s preliminary figures show about $7.8 million in additional expenses against roughly $4.6 million in additional revenue, producing a working gap of about $3.2 million that the board and administration must close.

The draft budget, Harris said, does not yet include final staffing decisions or finalized BOCES charges. She told the board that some line items are based on assumptions — for example, cybersecurity and network costs (referred to in the…