Hampton Bays sees enrollment dip; board discusses 2027 bond, tax-cap implications

Hampton Bays Union Free School District officials told the Board on Nov. 18 that unadjusted enrollment has settled at about 1,923 students and that district demography — including smaller incoming kindergarten cohorts — will be closely monitored during the budget process.

A board presenter said current counts show roughly 202 twelfth-graders and about 108 kindergarteners in November and warned that a net loss of students next year could lower enrollment by around 5 percent, with implications for staffing and expenditures. The presenter linked enrollment trends in part to housing prices and changes in federal immigration enforcement patterns and said the district will analyze effects during the upcoming budget season.

District leaders also discussed planning for a 2027 capital bond to continue prioritized projects not fully completed in prior bonds. The board described a strategy used in 2012 and later years: when a bond’s debt service drops off, the district seeks a new bond sized so the annual debt-service payment remains similar, minimizing tax-rate impact. Officials cautioned that higher interest-rate conditions mean the same annual payment will support a smaller total construction amount than in prior years; projections suggested between $10 million and $12 million of work might be affordable under the same debt-service level, versus larger amounts in 2012.

Board members said HVAC and AC remain priorities and that a 2026 planning process will refine what the 2027 proposition would include, with an intent to limit tax impact by timing the new bond to replace retiring debt service.