Superintendents pitch 2026-27 spending plans

Bedford Central: proposal uses ‘modified zero-based budgeting’ to bridge gap

By JEFF MORRIS 

Issues that have vexed the Bedford Central Board of Education in previous years came to the fore again following Wednesday’s presentation of the superintendent’s proposed 2026-27 budget.

Questions regarding elementary class sizes, arts and music instructional time, and differences between elementary schools were brought up both during board discussion and public forum following a collaborative presentation by Superintendent Robert Glass and Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Jose Formoso at the March 25 meeting.

By the end of the two hour-plus discussion, the board seemed ready to take full advantage of scheduled budget work sessions on April 8 and 22 to deliberate on the proposal before adopting a final budget.

The superintendent’s budget

Glass called this “the most collaborative budget process since I’ve been here,” and reiterated that they are wrestling with a substantial budget gap. 

In January, Formoso projected a budget gap of $3,848,863; in this presentation, the gap was projected at approximately $5 million. The original gap, Formoso said, was based on simply rolling over last year’s budget, and did not include a rise in expenses for this year, chiefly due to health insurance.

Otherwise, the numbers in this proposal had changed very little from the preliminary version introduced in January. The preliminary version totaled $167.5 million; this proposal totals $165,989,470. That compares to a 2025-26 budget of $160.9 million, a budget-to-budget increase of $5,083,970, or 3.16%. 

The tax levy remained the same in both versions, at $149,468,630, a $3,809,421 or 2.6% increase; that puts it at the tax cap. State aid is projected to be $8,717,537, with $6,894,107 in other revenue, and $909,196 in assigned fund balance used to lessen the tax impact.

Formoso said they are leaving the projected state aid percentage at 1.32% for now, though it is usually more like 2% and could still come in at that rate. The actual figure is unknown because the state budget is still not passed. However, Formoso said the district’s aid rates are surprisingly low. “Our transportation aid is the lowest possible in the state — 6.5%,” he said. “I did compare it to a neighboring district; they receive five times more. Our building aid is also at the minimum that the state gives, which is 10%.” He said this is a detriment to the district, and there needs to be more advocacy to correct it. Formoso said he is working with a division of BOCES right now on a review, and they are coming for a meeting in April. 

Among the key budget drivers is transportation, with a budget-to-budget increase of $615,896 or 6.22%. Formoso said an additional bus route was added this year that was not in the budget, and this increase is based on an estimate in case there is a need for another route, as well as a placeholder for an efficiency study. Operations and Maintenance projects a $599,024 or $6.97% increase of costs.

Also as noted at previous presentations, hospital/medical insurance is projected for $26,215,000, an increase of $2,584,625 or 10.94%, which is less than how much it would have gone up without the district’s switch in health insurance plans. The rise in health insurance cost was the primary reason for the  budget gap, and was the reason the district decided to switch from a self-insured plan to NYSHIP.

And, while the required employer contribution to the Teachers’ Retirement System is decreasing, from 9.59% to 8.24%, the Employees’ Retirement System contribution rate is increasing from 16.5% to 17.6%. 

Modified Zero-Based Budgeting

Formoso explained that their goal was to stay within the tax cap, but they are not using just a zero-based model. “A zero-based budgeting model specifically looks at what are the exact needs you need to cover based on your enrollment for the next year,” he said. “A modified model looks at what are the needs you need to cover, taking into consideration any kind of other needs in terms of programming and offerings that you have.”

Starting with a zero-based model provides a baseline, Formoso said, which is important because in a trend where enrollment is declining, by continuing to roll over staff “you will never be able to get your staffing to the right place.” But in their modified model, he said, they had “all different levels of communication going from the central cabinet to our building level administrators, and we did do this in a collaborative fashion.” 

In presenting class size projections, Glass explained that there are two different guidelines for maximum class sizes: practice and contract. Contract is the maximum allowed under the teachers’ contract; practice is the number the district has always followed, and the class sizes are smaller than the number permitted by contract.

Glass said they built their own modified model, using the historical practice size as the basis for staffing. A similar model was used at the secondary level, modified to allow electives in which enrollment might be much lower but has always been popular. “We will not allow any courses to dead-end; we will not eliminate capstone courses,” he said.

At the same time, said Glass, they looked at all departments through an efficiency lens, but this year they focused on classrooms because they had an unusual number of retirements they could capitalize on, which gave them an opportunity to achieve efficiencies by heading off hiring replacements.

Additions and subtractions

Glass said elementary schedule modification achieves compliance with state mandated requirements for Health & PE.

Among additions, there will be a bilingual social worker at Fox Lane Middle School; $250,000 is added to the Capital Projects Fund to enhance maintenance; and resources are added for recommendations from the DLBE study. Also added are a JV flag football team, additional boys volleyball team, while converting the merged girls golf team to a stand-alone BCSD team.

The budget maintains all K-12 programs and electives with some modifications at the K-8 level; maintains newly added .5 elementary school resource officer, the safety monitor recently added at Mount Kisco Elementary School, and the recently added districtwide .6 school safety coordinator. There will be a budget neutral nurse coverage adjustment to meet need at FLMS.

Among positions being eliminated, there will be a reduction of two elementary computer aides, with another eight elementary aides reduced by a change to the staffing formula, with an increase in lunch aides using a different fund. 

“We had a very large contingent of aides,” said Glass.

An unfilled assistant director of facilities position will be eliminated, as will the recently vacated benefits coordinator position, with that function moved to the business office. 

Questions and discussion

Board members had concerns about some larger class sizes, as did parents during public Q&A. Glass repeated his assertions that all the class sizes were within their historical best practice guidelines, that their programs were all still very strong, and while there are always going to be bumps along the way, “I would not bring you a budget I did not believe in.”

Nevertheless, there were continuing questions about a plan to modify elementary rotations to have art and music for 42 minutes once every five days rather than every four days. Board members said such a modification had been proposed in prior years and was rejected by the board, and they were indignant that the measure was now being brought back. Multiple parents also decried any decrease in arts and music education.

Board President Gilian Klein said, “We will have several weeks of deliberations on this.”

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Katonah-Lewisboro proposal will raise tax levy from $109 million to $113 million

By JEFF MORRIS 

The Katonah-Lewisboro superintendent's proposed 2026-27 budget was to be formally presented to the Board of Education on Thursday, March 26.

The proposed budget totals $131,816,402, a budget-to-budget increase of $4,405,933, or 3.46%, over the current $127,410,469.

The proposed budget results in a tax levy of $113,558,301, an increase of $4,067,878 over the 2025-2026 tax levy. The proposed tax levy increase of 3.72% meets the New York state tax cap limit, meaning the budget will require a simple majority vote to pass.

Major increases in the budget include $2,652,550 in benefits; $1,044,128 for special education; and $1,342,343 in debt. Those three alone total $5,039,021.

According to the administration, it was informed in December 2025 that health insurance premiums would increase an average of 11.62% for active and retired employees for the calendar year 2026. Premiums for 2027 are still unknown, and with funds included to support the potential for continued increases, the budget contains $25,049,583 for health insurance costs, a year-to-year increase of $2,452,112.

Another large mandate is $7,469,986 to fund the NYS Retirement Systems costs for employees, which in 2026-27 will include an increase in NYS Employee Retirement System and a decrease in the NYS Teachers Retirement System employer contribution rates. This will result in a year-to-year net increase in retirement costs of $131,977, with retirement expenses comprising just over 5.67% of the entire budget.

State aid reached a high of over 10% of the school budget in 2023-24. Since then it has shown a steady decline, and is projected to be 8.43% of the total budget in 2026-27, though that is still much higher than it was from 2015-16 to 2022-23, when it was below 8% in all but two years.

Enrollment and staffing

Projections for enrollment in 2026-27 include an increase of 33 elementary students, one additional middle school student, and a decrease of 19 at the high school, for a net increase of 15 students.

The superintendent’s budget summary says the proposal maintains current student programming while expanding the literacy program and continuing to prioritize favorable class sizes; maintains support for all students and professional learning; and incorporates additional debt payments approved by voters in the October 2022 bond referendum to support significant infrastructure enhancements at all five schools.

Additions in the budget include three special education teachers, one at each elementary school, to support the creation of an additional co-taught classroom section in all three elementary buildings. An additional special education teacher and a Committee on Special Education chair are planned for the middle and high school, along with a coordinator of student empowerment at JJHS.

According to the budget proposal, middle school staffing is based upon the continuation of the teaming model. It states the district is committed to looking for staffing efficiencies by sharing staff between both the high school and middle school, “to ensure that the district is maximizing the projected FTE (full-time employees) with the needs of students, being ever mindful of class size. Final determinations of shared staffing will be made later in the spring.” A reduction of 11 full-time employees at the secondary level is to be primarily achieved through attrition.

Other proposed reductions are one third-grade section at Meadow Pond, along with the elimination of one instructional coach position at the elementary level.

As in past years, the budget includes four contingency teaching positions, to allow for flexibility. Administrators note that the student numbers included in elementary projections are based on October data, with kindergarten numbers being more challenging to predict than other grade levels, but that “when coupled with the contingency positions we are proposing, we are confident that we will have adequate staffing to maintain favorable class sizes in all grades.”

Enhancements include high-quality materials for the literacy program, as well as science and math, and upgraded textbooks; an increase in hours for grade level leaders; additional professional learning and development; a new business course; and funding for intra-state travel for science research, robotics, DECA (preparing emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management), and athletics.

At the board’s March 12 meeting, when the proposed budget was initially introduced, Superintendent Ray Blanch noted that the district is “one of maybe a dozen across the entire state” that was offered an early opportunity for the AP business course and there are already 125 students signed up.

Utility Costs

One area that received attention in the proposed budget is utility costs. The district says it has been able to reduce costs and stabilize electricity expenses by seeking competitive bids for energy supply since the 2010 deregulation of electricity in New York state, and the board takes advantage of opportunities to lock in rates for multiple years to ensure cost stability. And, as a result of the Solar Energy Performance Contract projects implemented across all buildings, the district will also begin to realize savings in electricity consumption, which will be used to help offset the annual debt installment payments associated with the EPC projects.

“We are also budgeting for a reduction in projected heating oil usage due to the installation of new heat pump technology compared to last year’s projections,” the district says. “Our annual fuel consumption has continued to decline as a result of energy conservation initiatives and enhanced monitoring through our building management system,” and these efforts have contributed to ongoing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Propositions

In addition to Proposition No. 1, the actual budget, there will be two additional propositions on the May 19 ballot. 

Proposition 2 is a Capital Reserve Authorization, allowing the district to reallocate $2.5 million from the capital reserve approved by voters in 2015 to be used for a variety of improvements to facilities that were enumerated in a plan by H2M Architects.

Proposition 3 will authorize the renovation of Lewisboro Elementary School into a universal pre-kindergarten center, with portions available for public use. The estimated total cost of $24.5 million is to be raised through the sale of bonds.

A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held May 7.