Victor Central School District outlines 2026–27 operational budget update; shifts $100,000 to capture state building aid

Christine Griffin, Assistant Superintendent for Business, presented the Victor Central School District’s second update for the 2026–27 budget, saying the presentation would concentrate on operations and maintenance, security and transportation and detailed proposed totals and next steps.

Griffin said the proposed operations and maintenance budget is $5,868,252, an increase of 2.9% (about $164,000). She told the board that salaries in that area are up about 3.8% driven by contractual obligations and supplies are increasing about 7.7%. Griffin flagged a reduction in the BOCES line and a new $100,000 capital outlay entry tied to a door-hardening project spanning prior school years.

She said the district is moving $100,000 from the BOCES operations line into a capital outlay project line to capture state building aid, which she described as reimbursing roughly 75.2% in the following fiscal year. "Shifting it from the BOCES line to the capital outlay line, it's budget neutral," Griffin said, adding that the shift means the district does the work in one year and receives most of the reimbursement in the next year: "you end up with getting $100,000 worth of work done in that second year for $25,000." Griffin said the $100,000 was tied to a two-year door-hardening project spanning the '24–'25 and '25–'26 school years.

On security, Griffin presented a proposed total of $675,431, a 4.1% year-over-year increase. Salaries in security are budgeted to increase about 3.1%, and contractual expenses are rising (the contract line funds the district’s school resource officer through Ontario County and was underbudgeted in prior years). She said the equipment allocation of $60,000 is intended for interior and exterior security cameras and door-hardening work; those capital items are eligible for New York Safe Act Aid/building aid at about a 75.2% reimbursement rate.

During the discussion a board member said the district's security had been "anemic at best about 4 or 5 years ago" but that investments such as the SRO and other measures have made staff and students feel safer. "It feels a lot more safe with the stuff that we're able to do," the speaker said.

Griffin outlined the proposed transportation budget at $5,258,000, an increase of about 4.3%, with salaries budgeted to rise roughly 4%. She said the contractual line shows larger percentage increases (14.4%), with contract busing up about 5.8%. Two main drivers for the increase are a driver shortage, which requires continued use of outside providers, and an insurance "correction" that raised contractual costs by about $53,000 to address prior under-budgeting of vehicle and bus liability.

The district is proposing a spring proposition for consistent fleet replacement, Griffin said, requesting purchase of five 77-passenger diesel buses, two 30-passenger diesel buses and one 60-passenger wheelchair-accessible bus; she stated the total fleet upgrade cost at about $1,560,000.

Griffin described next steps in the budget process: further personnel reviews (with a presentation on the personnel budget in March), meetings with building and department leadership about non-personnel requests, twice-monthly meetings through the final recommendation, and the timing of upcoming presentations tied to the governor’s executive budget release. She gave the calendar for upcoming work: a building budgets review Jan. 29; instruction and pupil services Feb. 12; revenue and the tax cap calculation Feb. 26; personnel on March 11; an update March 26; a target for final adoption on April 16; and the budget vote on May 19.

No formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript of this presentation. The meeting moved to Q&A and brief comments before Griffin closed the presentation and thanked attendees.