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New Rochelle begins early budget process for 2025-26; district awaits state aid and emphasizes staffing costs
Summary
At a second budget workshop the New Rochelle City School District emphasized early planning for 2025-26, reiterated that roughly 70% of revenue comes from local taxes and 74% of expenditures are salary and benefits, and said the district is awaiting state foundation aid numbers before finalizing the plan.
The New Rochelle City School District on Tuesday held the second of its scheduled budget workshops for fiscal year 2025-26, urging early planning while awaiting state guidance on foundation aid that will influence next year's budget.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Carlos X. Leo and Business Administrator Joy Mike led the presentation, which repeated the district's stated priorities: evaluate staffing requests and retirements, review grant-funded positions, prioritize facilities and renovation requests, and align budget codes to New York State reporting requirements.
"It is so quiet. It's a little eerie," Leo said when describing the district's current status: the district is still waiting on key state numbers that will influence revenue projections. The presenters told the board the district cannot finalize revenue assumptions until the governor's aid proposal and building aid notifications are available.
The presentation reiterated revenue and expenditure profiles used for planning: about 70% of the district's revenue comes from the local tax levy, roughly 26% from state and federal aid, and salary and benefits account for approximately 74% of expenditures. Presenters flagged several variables that could materially affect next year's budget: potential changes in retirement system rates, uncertain health insurance rate increases, utility cost fluctuations and contractual obligations for transportation and other services.
Joy Mike walked trustees through the budget development timeline and the required legal steps. The board was reminded of upcoming public dates in the process, including additional workshops on Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, March sessions on March 4 and March 20, a budget hearing on May 6 and the district's budget vote that will take place on the statewide election day (May 20).
Board members were given opportunities to ask questions and were directed to a budget email address (budgetquestions@nredlearn.org) for community follow-up. The presenters stressed that, by law, the district must present a balanced budget and that limited discretionary spending is available once salary and benefits and contractual obligations are accounted for.
No formal budget decisions were made at the workshop; the session was informational and intended to collect initial departmental inputs and prepare for later decisions when state aid figures are available.
