Rye City School District unveils tax-cap compliant 2025–26 budget proposal

Superintendent Eric Burns presented the Rye City School District’s proposed 2025–26 budget on Feb. 11, telling the Board the proposal is tax-cap compliant and would fund current programs while addressing enrollment, facilities, contractual obligations and programming.

The proposal would raise the overall budget from $110,556,311 (2024–25) to $113,267,267 — a 2.45 percent budget-to-budget increase — and relies on an allowable tax levy increase of 3.66 percent. The district’s estimated tax levy to support the budget is $102,324,607, the administration said. The proposal assumes using $2.7 million in district reserves to support next year’s budget.

The budget presentation emphasized four pillars that guide spending decisions: enrollment, infrastructure, contractual obligations (including pensions and health benefits) and programming. Burns and Gabriela (Gabby) Peruccio said the administration is planning conservatively on enrollment with a flat overall pupil roll and a conservative kindergarten projection until registrations finalize prior to budget adoption.

On staffing and program changes, the proposal includes two additional full-time teachers at Rye High School to support the International Baccalaureate program — a social studies teacher to deliver IB business courses and a computer science teacher for IB computer science offerings — and the addition of one full-time district-wide custodial position split between Osborne and Midland to support two new wings. The plan also reduces physical education staffing by one full-time teacher due to retirement and proposes creating an administrative director of school counseling (K–12) to coordinate counseling services districtwide; the director position will be presented in greater detail in an upcoming budget meeting by Dr. Breidenberg.

The administration flagged several cost pressures. Pension contribution rates presented showed the Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) contribution rising from 15.2 percent to 16.5 percent and the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) rate moving from 10.2 percent to 9.59 percent in the working slides; projected pension-related expenses cited were about $4.9 million for TRS and $1.475 million for ERS. Health insurance premiums are estimated to rise roughly 9 percent for 2025–26, with projected district health benefit expense increasing from approximately $13.8 million to about $15.0 million; the district participates in a multi-district consortium (referred to in the presentation as the Swiss chip consortium) to contain costs.

Facilities needs and capital work remain a major focus. Presenters reviewed the district’s multi-decade facilities inventory, noting older buildings dating to the 1800s and 1920s and prior voter-approved bond work (a 2019 $79.9 million bond). The proposed operating budget continues a transfer to the capital fund to support non-bond projects such as gym and music-room floor abatement and replacement (including asbestos abatement recently required for the high school gym floor), network and security wiring for new additions, and ongoing maintenance and HVAC programs.

Regarding revenue, the administration projected a modest increase in state aid (foundation aid) of about $98,000 for 2025–26 and reviewed the complexity of the state’s foundation-aid formula and recent studies commissioned to consider changes. Peruccio explained a reporting change: employee contributions toward health insurance that had been recorded as miscellaneous revenue will now appear as a negative expenditure, shifting those dollars from the revenue column to the expenditure side for state reporting; the change has a net-zero budgetary effect but alters presentation.

The presentation noted line-item variances across general education, special education (projected reduction tied to student needs), athletics (rising postseason travel and facility rentals), technology (license and infrastructure costs), transportation (student- and special-education-driven costs) and districtwide liability insurance and security/camera replacement cycles. The administration said they will present deeper dives on curriculum and special education on March 11 and on technology, athletics and facilities on March 25.

Board members thanked the administration for producing a tax-cap‑compliant proposal after the previous year’s override and endorsed continued review during the next two public budget meetings. No final adoption occurred at the Feb. 11 meeting; the board will vote at the district’s scheduled budget adoption and vote timeline in spring.

Ending: The budget presentation begins the district’s formal budget season; the next public meetings for budget detail are March 11 and March 25, with budget adoption and public hearing dates to follow under the district calendar and the public vote scheduled for May.