Syosset budget preview: rising insurance, transportation and benefits could push district to tax cap

The Syosset Central School District’s finance team told the Board of Education at its March meeting that rising health-insurance premiums, a tightening insurance market related to Child Victim Act claims, and transportation bid increases are creating budget pressure that could push the district up against the 2025–26 tax cap.

Treasurer Dr. Ruffeld reported that cash-on-hand at the end of January 2025 was $111,006,639.99 and that bank balances were reconciled and collateralized in accordance with district policy. She said the district has relied on restricted reserves in recent years to offset cost spikes and expects to use roughly $8.2 million of reserves in 2025–26, up from about $7.2 million in 2024–25.

Why it matters: the district’s primary goal, administrators said, is preserving existing programs and services for students while staying within the state tax cap. Officials warned the combination of sustained enrollment growth, inflationary pressures and increases in employee benefits may force choices about phasing capital projects or shifting expenditures.

Highlights from the presentation - Benefits: The district is projecting an overall benefits increase of roughly $1.8 million (about 2.4%), driven primarily by a health-insurance line administrators said currently includes an assumed 10% premium increase for next year. The district uses restricted reserves (ERS, TRS and other lines) to smooth benefit cost spikes. - Reserves: For 2024–25 the district used about $7.2 million of reserves; current planning shows about $8.2 million for 2025–26, including an additional $500,000 to ERS. TRS full expenditure is shown near $12.4 million and the district currently plans to use about $2 million of the TRS reserve in 2025–26. - Insurance market: Citizens Finance Committee members and administration discussed a difficult insurance market driven in part by claims related to the Child Victims Act and fewer insurers writing school-district business, producing higher premiums and fewer competitive bids. - Transportation: The district’s transportation contractor declined to renew at CPI; bids recently returned and administrators said they expect increases “well above” CPI but did not disclose final contract amounts at the meeting. - Program (instructional) budget: The program section accounts for roughly three-quarters of total spending. Administrators reported a preliminary program increase of about $7.5 million (4.75%). The largest function code (2-110, classroom instruction) is budgeted at about $90 million and is up roughly $2.8 million (3.2%). Special education is forecast to increase roughly $2.2 million (6.8%), driven by additional support staff hired in the current year and an additional special‑education kindergarten class; administration said special‑education shows a net increase of about five FTEs.

Board questions and clarifications Board members pressed for detail on whether the roughly $1 million health-insurance increase reflected a change to one contract or multiple plans; administration said NYSHIP (the New York State Health Insurance Program) provides a range of premium rates and that projections include a 10% assumption for the second half of next year. Members also asked whether specific items (mascot-related turf work, summer-school insurance allocation) were already included in capital or administrative lines; administrators pointed to prior-year capital allocations and said insurance is budgeted within the administrative insurance code.

Administration’s next steps Administrators said they will continue staffing and benefits work, finalize revenue assumptions (including BOCES reimbursement timing), revisit capital phasing and equipment purchases, and present an updated revenue/expenditure picture at the next meeting in advance of an April budget adoption.

Ending Treasurer Dr. Ruffeld and Superintendent Dr. Rogers said the district will aim to protect instructional programming while pursuing cost reductions or timing changes to capital items and will report back with refined numbers prior to the formal budget adoption vote.