Monroe-Woodbury board reviews 2025–26 personnel plan, proposes small net FTE increase

Miss Hawk, a district staff member, presented the Monroe-Woodbury Central School District’s personnel budget for the 2025–26 school year at the Board of Education meeting on March 19.

"We have proposed a total of 1,128.68 FTEs for next year, which represents an overall year to year addition of 6.17 FTEs or a 0.55% increase," Miss Hawk said, and walked the board through year-to-year changes by department.

The presentation noted the district is effectively restoring positions cut the previous year: Hawk said the proposed total recovers the 6.17 positions reduced in 2023–24. For strictly new positions for 2025–26 the district is proposing a net increase of 4.6 FTEs after reallocations tied to modest enrollment declines.

Hawk listed new or reallocated positions that drove the change: two special-education teachers, two English‑language learners teachers, a writer’s workshop teacher, several teaching assistants, and a 0.6 ELL coordinator. She said 4.75 of the added FTEs were filled during the current year but were not in that year’s adopted budget because the needs arose after adoption.

The presentation highlighted a drop in transportation FTEs of 7.97, which Hawk said reflects the removal of unfilled positions that were added in the prior year to expand in‑house bus runs; those vacant positions will be deleted from next year’s budget while the district continues to recruit drivers.

On costs, Hawk presented a proposed total staff salary line of $112,689,974 and described that as a 3.53% increase driven largely by step increases and contractual raises. She also pointed out a large percentage change in a small category labeled "other," which includes health‑insurance buyouts and vacation payouts and represents about 1.2% of staffing expenditures.

Business office staff told the board that employee benefits are forecast to rise by about 0.1% overall. The presentation said health insurance for active employees and retirees accounts for about 56% of benefit spending and that the projected increase for health insurance is approximately 2.6%, attributed to higher premiums through the Orange‑Ulster health plan. The district expects a roughly 7% rise in "other insurances" (workers’ compensation, life insurance and unemployment), driven in part by higher required contributions to the BOCES workers’ compensation consortium. Contributions to the state retirement systems (ERS and TRS) were presented as decreasing by roughly 6.5% compared with the current year.

Board members asked about FICA and how it appears on the benefit pie chart; business office staff explained that the pie chart reports FICA as 15% of total fringe‑benefit spending and noted the statutory FICA payroll rate is 7.65% of wages. The presenter did not provide a line‑by‑line reconciliation beyond the charts shown.

Hawk closed the presentation by summarizing the district’s priorities: restoring positions cut in the prior year, allocating additional instructional staff to meet student needs, and exercising financial restraint to limit taxpayer impact.

The board did not take a final budget vote at the meeting; the presentation was delivered as part of the regular agenda.