The West Islip Union Free School District finalized the 2024/2025 District Budget on April 16. The district will continue to offer all current programming during the school year; however, there are staff changes, and the high school summer school program and middle school summer academy will be eliminated.

While teaching positions are not being cut, the district will be absorbing teaching positions for some retiring teachers. Positions being eliminated include 18 aid positions and five teaching assistant positions.

Still, a number of different instructional programs and staff positions will grow upon the budget’s approval.

“We have a new ENL teacher, a new speech therapist, a new special ed teacher at the middle school, and we are growing our STEM programs,” explained superintendent of the West Islip UFSD, Dr. Paul Romanelli. “We are really glad we were able to maintain all of our instructional programs and grow in some areas, despite the challenging fiscal climate.”

The 2024-25 expenditure budget is made up of funds from the restricted tax levy, state aid, other revenues, Appropriated Fund Balance, and funds appropriated from reserves.

The proposed 2024-2025 tax levy is $93,402,547, which is a 1.44 percent increase compared to the 2023-2024 tax levy, which was $92,077,197. For reference, the Long Island average is 2.67 percent.

“Our tax levy percentage is only 1.44 percent, which is one of the lowest on Long Island,” Romanelli added.

With the 1.44 percent increase, an average assessed home of $45,000 will experience an increase of $149.78 per year, equaling an increase of about $12.50 a month. You can calculate the assessed value of your home on the Town of Islip website by visiting https://islipny.gov/community-and-services/assessment-roll/assessment-roll-app.

Funding from other revenue is decreasing by 4.73 percent, mainly due to a decrease in both PILOTS funding and tuition from other districts.

$4,375,000 will be appropriated from reserve funds for the 2024-25 budget, a drastic 224.07 percent increase from the $1,350,000 appropriated in the budget last year. $400,000 will go toward employee benefit accrued liability, $2,100,000 will go toward Teachers’ Retirement Systems, $1,500,000 will go toward Employee Retirement Systems, and $375,000 is allocated to Workers’ Compensation. Additionally, $850,000 from the Appropriated Fund Balance is included in the 2024-25 budget, the same amount allocated in the 2023-24 budget.

The 2024-25 budget has about $1.3 million of an inter-fund transfer to capital for several projects that are going to be done, mostly paving, sidewalks, and parking lot spaces around the district.

Two hot-button issues in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed FY 2025 Executive Budget that would impact the district’s funding include the Save Harmless Provision and Inflation Adjustment. “Save Harmless,” also known as “Hold Harmless,” ensures that districts never receive less funding than the year before, regardless of population loss, their need, or the size of their surpluses.

It had previously been predicted that the Save Harmless provision would be removed from the Executive Budget, which would decrease the District’s Foundation Aid by $3.4 million, a 12.91 percent decrease in Foundation Aid from last year, and total State Aid would decrease by $3 million, or 8.28 percent.

However, it is important to note that the district is now projecting that the Save-Harmless provision will be included and enacted in the executive budget, given the most recent updated information received by the district. Therefore, the district is expecting to receive at least the same amount as it did in 2023-24.

With the district projecting the Save-Harmless provision to be passed in the NYS Executive budget, the amount of foundation aid received for the 2024-25 will be at least $26,024,962, the same amount as last year. This would ultimately result in $36,387,358 received for State Aid this school year, an increase of 1.05 percent compared to last year’s budget.

With the district estimated to receive at least $26,024,962 in Foundation Aid, the 2024-2025 budget totals to $138,761,990. The total budget is 3.38 percent higher than the 2023-24 budget.

Two propositions will be included on the ballot during the budget vote on May 21. Proposition one will be the district budget, while proposition two will be for use of capital reserves. Proposition two includes phase one of boiler burner control replacements, which would authorize the replacement of the boiler control systems in the worst condition throughout the district. This project is estimated to cost $600,000. This capital reserves proposition would also authorize a renovation to the Udall Road Middle School orchestra room to level the slanted floor, which has an estimated cost of $260,000. The capital reserved proposition has a total “not-to-exceed” authorization of $860,000. If approved, any unspent funds would be returned to the capital reserve.

Funding to renovate and enhance the pool is separate from the 2024-2025 budget and therefore not included in the budget, as the project went out for a bond in January after a great majority of residents approved the project. Payment for the renovation and enhancement, fully funded through a bond, will not begin until 2025-26.

A public budget hearing will be held May 7 in the Beach Street Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Do not miss the Budget Vote on Tuesday, May 21, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the West Islip High School Gymnasium.