The Syosset Board of Education reviewed the district’s developing 2026–27 budget, major construction projects and instructional initiatives during its Monday, March 9, board meeting.
While the total budget for the 2026-2027 school year will be finalized later this spring, the board adopted a $285 million budget for the 2025-2026 school year. The Syosset school district budget covers 10 schools and 7,200 students.
Associate Superintendent for Business Patricia Rufo presented the district’s second budget update of the year, explaining that health insurance remains one of the highest costs in the proposed spending plan.
The district is projecting a nearly 10% increase in health insurance premiums, contributing to an estimated $4.6 million increase in overall benefits costs for next year. Rufo said those costs remain “challenging to predict” because insurance providers sometimes use reserves that temporarily lower rates before increases occur.
Overall, benefits costs are expected to increase by nearly 6%. Rufo said changes in retirement system contributions will partially offset those increases, as employer contribution rates for the Teachers’ Retirement System have declined while rates for the Employees’ Retirement System are expected to increase.
Rufo said the district expects to use approximately $5 million from its ERS reserve and $3 million from its TRS reserve as part of next year’s budget plan.
“The reserves are there to help us buffer the tax levy when we have material increases like we are seeing with ERS,” Rufo said.
The district’s instructional program budget, which represents nearly three-quarters of total spending, is projected to increase by about $3 million, largely due to contractual salary and staffing adjustments.
Transportation services are also undergoing changes as the district begins expanding its in-house transportation operations. The district has begun budgeting for new driver positions and vehicle operations as it develops its own bus fleet.
Rufo said the goal is to ensure the district is using its transportation resources efficiently across multiple services.
“We want to ensure that we design a system that optimizes our investment between all the different transportation options we have – our home to school, our late bus routes, our field trips, our weekend trips,” Rufo said.
Superintendent Dr. Thomas Rogers also provided updates on several construction projects scheduled to begin this summer, including air conditioning installations in elementary school gymnasiums and renovations to locker rooms at both middle schools. Athletic facility upgrades, including field improvements, are also planned as part of the district’s capital program.
The district is also planning classroom additions at the elementary level, and are currently awaiting approval from the New York State Education Department..
The superintendent also addressed the broader state fiscal outlook, noting that earlier projections of a large state budget deficit have improved.
“The large $7 billion deficit that had been predicted about six months ago is now approaching a break-even kind of status,” Rogers said.
The meeting also included a presentation on math programs across the district’s schools. Administrators said the district has been shifting toward instructional approaches that emphasize conceptual understanding and collaborative problem-solving.
“All of the changes that we’ve made have been to move from a computational approach to math where students are learning to mimic procedures and moving to deeper insight and understanding so that students can apply their knowledge to novel situations,” Rogers said.
District officials expect additional updates at the Board of Education’s next meeting on April 20, before the spending plan is finalized.
