South Orangetown budget overview: administrators outline 4% reserve, enrollment dip and conservative approach
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Summary
Assistant Superintendent Natalie Espinal presented the district budget development process and fiscal snapshot: audited fund balance near the 4% guideline, 2025 revenues/expenditures reported, enrollment projected to fall slightly and the administration signaled a fiscally conservative plan with modeling starting at 1% growth.
Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations Natalie Espinal outlined the district’s budget-development process and guiding principles, telling the board the budget is intended to support instruction, align with academic priorities and provide legal transparency for the tax levy.
Espinal presented a snapshot of the audited fund balance as of June 30, 2025, and said the district has maintained roughly a 4% reserve (reported in the presentation as $4,600,000). She reported the district’s 2025 actual revenues were approximately $114,000,000 and expenditures approximately $109,000,000, producing an increase in fund balance largely driven by higher-than-expected interest earnings and steadier-than-expected enrollment revenue. Demographers contracted through BOCES projected total enrollment to decrease by about 10 students for the 2026–27 school year.
Board members pressed for clarity on how reserves are structured and urged a conservative budget approach. One board member said the public often misreads the capital reserves as an unrestricted pool; another suggested attempting to present a proposed tax levy increase well under the state tax cap (one board member suggested aiming for roughly half of whatever the cap becomes). The administration said it has discussed starting from a 1% scenario and would avoid using fund balance to close the budget gap this year in order to preserve long-term fiscal solvency.
Superintendent Dr. Arrieta noted recent state-level proposals that could increase school aid; she referenced a state proposal to raise education funding and said the district will advocate for funds that could help areas such as prekindergarten.
Administrators said they will continue to gather state aid guidance and refine numbers as more information becomes available in January; they asked board members to expect a series of budget meetings and a calendar of legally required notices and public hearings.