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Goshen superintendent and business office preview non-instructional budget; section up $1.1M (2.8%)
Summary
Assistant superintendent for business presented the non-instructional portion of the district’s 2025–26 budget, citing drivers such as benefits, utilities, insurance and transportation changes and estimating a $1.1 million (2.8%) increase over the prior year.
Miss Van Paul Lamoran, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, presented the non-instructional portion of the 2025–26 budget during the Jan. 15 Goshen Board of Education meeting.
Lamoran said the non-instructional section — the portions of the budget that support buildings, central administration, transportation and districtwide benefits — is currently projected to increase by about $1,100,000, or 2.8 percent, compared with the 2024–25 non-instructional budget. "I can't see it on the screen, but it's $1,100,000, or 2.8%." she said in the presentation.
Lamoran outlined the eight categories that make up the non-instructional side of the budget (board of education, central administration, finance, staff, central services, buildings and grounds, special items, transportation and undistributed items including benefits and debt service). She identified the primary cost drivers as staffing and benefits (which she said can account for roughly 80 percent or more of a school budget), utilities and cleaning supplies, insurance rate increases, and transportation changes tied to moving some runs back in-house from BOCES contractors.
She added district-level uncertainties remain: final state aid and the governor's budget numbers expected the week after the meeting, BOCES rates that had been received but not yet fully updated in the presentation, and the annual tax levy cap formula that will be determined by later inputs and exclusions. Lamoran also noted an accounting change under recent Governmental Accounting Standards Board guidance that affects how leases are booked, which added a line to debt-service-related entries.
Lamoran said the district has not added staff in the non-instructional section but is budgeting contractual salary increases already settled and new software for HR onboarding and communications. She said further budget work will continue, and the board is scheduled to review the instructional side and revenue projections in coming meetings; the board must adopt a proposed budget by April 22 to meet the district's calendar.
Board members asked for follow-up figures on cost savings from moving transportation runs in-house; Lamoran said she would calculate average fuel and toll costs and return with estimates.
The presentation was informational; no final budget vote occurred at the Jan. 15 meeting.
