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Greece CSD finance director outlines governor's executive-aid figures and a first-pass 2025'26 budget with a $6 million gap
Summary
District administrators presented the governor's executive aid run, noted changes in foundation aid and expense-based aids, and offered a conservative first-pass budget showing a preliminary gap of about $6 million and no planned layoffs.
District officials presented the governor's executive-state-aid numbers and the district's initial 2025'26 general-fund budget first pass, noting higher proposed foundation aid but also rising costs that produce a multi-million-dollar preliminary gap.
Romeo Cali, presenting state-aid highlights from the governor's January proposal, said statewide school aid was proposed at roughly $37 billion for 2025'26, an increase of about $1.7 billion (4.7%), and that foundation-aid changes and updated poverty measures pushed that line higher. Cali said expense-based aids (transportation, BOCES) were fully funded in the governor's run and that universal free school meals funding was included. He noted the governor's database used a mid-November snapshot and that numbers could change when the state reruns the data in February.
On the district's initial budget first pass, Cali said the administration used conservative revenue and expenditure estimates. The draft shows estimated revenues rising by about $9.3 million to a $317 million revenue total, while initial expenditures on the first pass are about $323 million, producing a preliminary gap of roughly $6 million. The presentation incorporated projected increases for salaries (driven by negotiated contracts and vacancies), ERS/TRS retirement costs, and a 14.4% health-care premium increase the district had been notified of.
Cali highlighted certain revenue and expenditure details: an added pilot payment (Clear Choice at Canal Ponds) estimated at about $187,000; tax-levy planning that preliminarily estimated a levy near 2%; a planned reduction in appropriated fund balance after one-time playground work is completed; and an increase in the district's transfer to capital that is under review. He also said building-aid, BOCES aid and public-access cost aid figures may shift after the state reruns final cost reports.
Board members asked clarifying questions about federal vs. general-fund revenues, universal pre-K funding, and a charter-school transition aid decrease. Cali and Assistant Superintendent Fleytler clarified that most federal grants are accounted for in the Special Aid Fund, that UPK funding appears to be level with last year at roughly $2.9 million (and is a grant in Special Aid), and that UPK placement is constrained by space more than funding.
