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Southampton board reviews preliminary 2025–26 budget emphasizing literacy, SEL and Shinnecock curriculum
Summary
Board members heard a first work‑session budget review that highlights updated classroom libraries, piloting a core reading program aligned to the 'science of reading,' expanded social‑emotional supports including sensory rooms, and a planned Shinnecock curriculum launch; the presentation also reviewed reserve balances and May ballot propositions.
The Southampton Union Free School District Board of Education on Monday reviewed a preliminary 2025–26 budget that prioritizes literacy investments, social‑emotional learning supports and a districtwide Shinnecock curriculum launch.
At the board's first budget work session, an administrator asked trustees to fund updated classroom libraries for pre‑K through grade 6 and to pilot a state‑aligned core reading program next year, with a possible districtwide adoption in 2026–27. "We will be looking at updates to classroom libraries in all classrooms at pre k through grade 6," the administrator said, and described plans to pilot vendors and analyze teacher and student data before scaling.
The presentation included plans for a weeklong summer professional development institute focused on literacy and multilingual instruction; the presenter said roughly 47 to 50 teachers were already enrolled for the training. The budget materials also designate funding for social‑emotional learning (SE L) and restorative‑justice supports, plus sensory wellness rooms at intermediate and high schools. "We're looking at the CASEL framework, and providing teaching resources and workbooks and tools that we can use at the classroom level," the administrator said.
Trustees were also briefed on a planned Shinnecock curriculum slated to launch in 2025–26. Presenters said lessons would be literacy‑based, include cultural artifacts and field trips tied to local historic sites, and require district‑created instructional materials in some cases.
On revenue and finance, the business presenter described enrollment declines over a six‑year trend and explained how the state's tax‑cap framework and allowable growth factors shape the levy. During the presentation the business officer read an initial property tax‑levy figure aloud to trustees (read in the meeting as $64,000,008.39) and reviewed reserve balances and proposed May ballot propositions for capital work, technology reserves and bus purchases. He said the district expects to present several capital propositions to voters and mentioned using sale proceeds from a recent property disposal to reduce future levies.
Trustees pressed administrators on electric‑bus procurement and costs; the board was told a consultant will present an electric‑bus planning proposal in early April. The presenter recalled vendor quotes from prior work and cautioned that current infrastructure and equipment costs make the transition expensive even with state incentives.
The board will continue budget discussions in a second work session scheduled for March 25, refine revenue and expense projections, meet with the audit and finance committee, and present a final budget for adoption ahead of the May public hearing and May 20 vote.
