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Board reviews one-house budgets and warns UPK could strain bus operations despite new aid
Summary
At the March 24 budget workshop, the district reviewed legislative budget drafts and transportation aid mechanics; officials said UPK appears likely to be funded but that adding preschoolers to transportation formulas creates operational challenges that aid dollars alone may not solve.
Mr. Freeman, the district’s business official, opened Workshop No. 2 with a review of recently released one-house budget proposals and what they mean for Webster’s state aid. He said both houses include a 2% minimum foundation-aid increase and both back the governor’s universal pre-K (UPK) proposal, but added that the 2% floor “doesn’t change things for us” because Webster’s formula currently yields roughly 2.9 percent.
The heart of the session was a detailed explanation of transportation aid. Mr. Freeman described the formula as wealth-driven — based on adjusted gross income and assessed value — and emphasized that districts must spend money in one year to receive the matching aid the next. He said Webster’s projected aid ratio for 2026‑27 is about 67.7 percent but walked the board through customary deductions (other-purpose miles such as athletics, non-allowable pupils living within 1.5 miles, leased miles, and revenue from vehicle sales) that reduce eligible expenses and, in an example, can cut an apparent 67.7 percent aid rate down to about 59.8 percent.
On UPK, Mr. Freeman said both houses’ support makes passage likely and that the governor has promoted the program publicly. He cautioned, however, that making UPK students “aidable” does not automatically solve operational problems: “It sounds great like, ‘Oh, yeah, the UPK kids are aidable now.’ But on the operations side, there’s some challenges,” he said, noting higher driver needs, car‑seat requirements for some four‑year‑olds, route changes, and the likely need for bus monitors. He and other board members also discussed how New York’s December 1 kindergarten cutoff complicates UPK implementation and flagged that a move to an earlier cutoff (e.g., Sept. 1) would align better with school operations.
Board members asked whether aid or grants in the draft budgets would cover zero‑emission bus infrastructure; Mr. Freeman pointed to a roughly $100 million infrastructure add to support zero‑emission buses in one house’s proposal, but said program details and grant timing would determine how much a district could access. On prior-year aid, Mr. Freeman said the state currently owes Webster about $840,000 in back payments, a matter under discussion in Albany.
The board did not take formal action on any state-level items at the workshop. Mr. Freeman said the district will revisit transportation calculations in Workshop 3 and finalize state-aid estimates after April 1, the state budget deadline.
