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Mineola board hears budget update showing modest salary rise, steep health-insurance pressure
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Will Herman told the Mineola Union Free School District board that salaries and benefits account for roughly 75–80% of the budget and projected a modest increase in salary costs but a sharper jump in health insurance that complicates next year's levy decision.
Assistant Superintendent Will Herman told the Mineola Union Free School District board on Feb. 26 that salaries and benefits make up "roughly 75 to 80% of the budget," framing the 2026–27 budget discussion around personnel costs.
Herman said the district is tentatively projecting about a 1.5% increase in total salary costs for 2026–27 and described several offsetting and compounding factors: three labor units remain in negotiation, recent and anticipated retirements can reduce cost, and newly reintroduced teaching-assistant positions add uncertainty about how the staff mix will affect payroll. "When you compile those 600 employees salaries all together for next year, I'm projecting just about $59 million in total expense," he said during the presentation.
On benefits, Herman said the district expects a sizable rise in health-insurance expenses. He described an average increase districtwide in January 2026 and said the district should anticipate similar year-to-year increases moving forward. "Health benefits is an interesting counter example where ... the district's level of control over it is virtually non-existent," he said, noting a recent mid-single-digit to high-single-digit jump in costs reported by the carrier.
Herman summarized the combined effect as a projected increase of roughly $1.8 million (about 2.06%) in salaries and benefits from 2025–26 to 2026–27, but he cautioned the figures are tentative. He emphasized the levy, state aid and appropriated fund balance all interact: the district submitted a March 1 tax-cap calculation indicating a 2.36% maximum allowable levy increase but said that submission is not binding and can be revised before budget adoption.
Board members asked for scenario modeling showing the budgetary impact of choosing lower levy increases (for example 2.00% or 2.25%) and the specific trade-offs that would follow — using more fund balance, cutting programs or relying on optimistic state-aid increases. Herman said he would provide that level of specificity at the next budget update.
The presentation is the second in a series ahead of the district's budget hearing and adoption schedule; Herman said he will return March 26 to present non-salary sections of the budget and more refined revenue numbers. "As we move into April and May, we get towards budget adoption, the budget hearing, and then eventually the actual budget vote," he said.
What's next: Herman will present levy-scenario detail and contingency-budget implications at the March 26 meeting; the district's budget hearing is scheduled for May 7 and the budget vote for May 19, 2026, under a resolution passed later in the evening.
