Rockville Centre board adopts $141.3 million preliminary budget, warns of staff reductions and program trade-offs

The Rockville Centre Board of Education on April 16 adopted a proposed $141,323,369 budget for the 2026–27 school year, keeping the district's tax levy increase within the legal cap while proposing programmatic staff reductions and selected restorations.

Superintendent Michael Gavin presented the three-part budget—administration ($12,324,153), academic program ($110,730,013) and capital ($18,269,203)—and said the total represents a $1.4 million, or 1.03%, budget-to-budget increase. Gavin told the board that health insurance and a multi-year decline in enrollment are major drivers: "our health insurance is rising to the tune of about $2 million," he said, and the district has seen about an 8% drop in enrollment over the past decade.

The administration proposed restoring 13 facilitator positions (an internal reallocation of about $120,000) and prioritized hiring a BCBA psychologist and an additional nurse to reduce outside contracted services. At the same time, the draft reflects proposed reductions including 22.2 teaching positions (described by the administration as 19 excess positions plus 3.2 part-time/resignation adjustments) and a reduction of 40 teaching-assistant positions; some of those TA reductions are contingent on state aid changes. Gavin said additional foundation-aid revenue from New York State would be directed to restoring teacher-assistant allocations.

Teachers-union president Leslie Danino urged the board to pass the budget to avoid deeper cuts, and pressed the administration for clearer accounting on special-education spending, citing what she described as a discrepancy between a district statement that contracted special-education costs are "$600,000 over budget" and an appropriation-status report showing roughly $136,000 of increased spending through February. Gavin's response noted that vendor billing often lags and that encumbrances and invoices come in at different times: "billing from contracted service providers very often is very behind," he said, asking the union to review the projections the district uses rather than rely solely on the encumbrance report.

Board debate reflected the trade-offs at the center of the draft budget. Dr. Downing, Mrs. Gruner and Mrs. Hackett said they would vote to adopt the proposed budget because it keeps programs running and remains within the tax cap; Ms. Messier announced a dissenting vote, saying in part that the planned cuts "undermine the instructional models we have intentionally designed" and that the reductions are choices rather than unavoidable. The motion to adopt the proposed budget carried; Ms. Messier voted no.

Administrators walked the meeting through revenue assumptions—state aid projected to be up about 1% under the current one-house legislative proposal, PILOTs (payments-in-lieu-of-taxes) netting a small decline, and a planned appropriation of $1.6 million of fund balance—and explained a $2 million transfer to capital, which they said is tax-cap neutral but dedicated to building repairs including a phased first-floor renovation at South Side Middle School. The district noted that state approval timelines typically put major capital work a year behind the ballot vote and that building aid is amortized (the district projects roughly 40% building aid on major projects).

Public comment during the budget portion was robust. Students and teachers made a public case for preserving the IB program and Stellar arts offerings; parents and residents urged alternatives to staffing cuts, recommended examining opportunities to bring some out-of-district special-education placements in-house, and asked for more detailed outcome data to measure the impact of reduced TA or program hours. Jeff Greenfield, a longtime attendee of budget hearings, urged a forensic accounting and questioned the timing and scale of the $2 million capital transfer; administrators responded that the transfer cannot be repurposed for operating expenses under tax-cap rules and that transporting some career-technical students in-house had already produced savings.

The board also moved the district wellness policy (5661) and the placement program for interscholastic athletics (7420) forward to final approval at a later meeting and adopted the property tax report card. Administration reminded the community that the public vote on the budget is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at South Side High School's main gymnasium and that absentee ballots must be received by 5:00 p.m. that day.

What happens next: the adopted proposed budget will be presented to voters on May 19. The board and administration said they will continue to monitor enrollment, state aid developments and vendor billing; the administration emphasized that additional state foundation aid would be the first lever to restore classroom support. "If we get any potential increase in foundation aid from New York State, that would be reallocated directly to restoring teacher-assistant positions," Gavin said.

Sources: Budget presentation and figures provided by Superintendent Michael Gavin and district business staff; public comments recorded at the April 16 preliminary budget hearing.