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Carmel board previews 2025–26 budget with 3.9% increase, $1.75M in reserves proposed
Summary
At its Feb. 4 meeting, the Carmel Central School District presented a draft 2025–26 budget that would increase spending by 3.9% (about $5 million) and recommend drawing roughly $1.75 million from restricted reserves; trustees asked questions about capital repairs, a proposed law-enforcement CTE program and bus replacements.
At a Feb. 4 board meeting at Carmel High School, district budget lead Ken Silver presented a line-by-line draft of the Carmel Central School District’s 2025–26 spending plan, saying the proposal would increase the budget by 3.9, roughly $5 million, and recommends using $1.75 million from restricted reserves out of about $20 million in total reserves.
Silver told trustees the increase translates to about three-quarters of 1 percent in taxes — “which for the house worth $350,000 is a total of $53 for the year,” he said — and that much of the plan relies on additional state aid and internal reallocation rather than a large new “wish list.”
The presentation covered proposed uses of restricted reserves (including a debt-service reserve and a capital reserve), $5.6 million in unrestricted reserves, and planned purchases such as seven small bus replacements, leased larger buses, and facilities equipment including trucks and mowers. Silver also highlighted a recommended $20,000 contingency for a possible third-party architectural review to speed safety and security projects and noted a required lead-in-water testing and remediation process with a coordinator in each building to be completed by Dec. 31, 2025.
Trustees asked targeted questions about several budget elements. Trustee Curzio asked whether the district budgets for tax certiorari litigation; Silver said his preference is to leave a tax-cert reserve available and only transfer funds if needed because the costs are unpredictable. Curzio and others pressed for details on a structurally compromised staircase at the high school that Silver called a safety hazard requiring shoring and state-aidable capital work. Trustees also discussed a proposed law-enforcement academy through BOCES, potential savings from long-term substitute hires and a retirement-incentive option the administration says could save roughly $1.5 million if 20 teachers retire.
The administration said several items in the presentation are contingent on state approvals and aid formulas, and that the board will continue to refine the budget at upcoming committee and public meetings before final adoption and the public vote cycle.
Next steps: the administration will post presentation materials online and present further budget details in hearings and committee meetings ahead of the board’s final adoption.
