The Roslyn School District adopted a budget of about $127.5 million and a 2.57% tax levy increase for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
The board convened Tuesday night for a board meeting where they voted to adopt the district’s budget and to approve the Nassau BOCES proposed administrative operations budget.
The Roslyn School District budget for 2023-2024 is established at $127,474,805, a 4.36% increase from the prior budget of $122,145,193.
The taxes levied in the district’s budget is $103,744,831. This is 2.57% greater than the prior budget’s tax levy of $101,148,674.
Superintendent Allison Brown said that the district’s enrollment is fluid, with 10 students enrolling since the board’s last meeting on March 23. A district total enrollment number was not provided.
Based on the district’s enrollment for 2022-2023 of 3,294 students, the adopted budget for 2023-2024 would approximate $38,699 spending per pupil.
District residents are able to vote on the district’s budget on May 16. Voting will be held in the North Gym at Roslyn High School from 7 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Board President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy said that the board is adopting the budget “in the blind” because the state budget has not been adopted yet. Due to this, state funding for schools is not been finalized.
Ben-Levy attributed the delay in the state’s budget approval partially to the state’s housing plan. The proposal would potentially require a 3% increase in housing units over three years in Long Island to compensate for a shortage of 800,000 housing units in the New York metropolitan area.
She said she participated in a press conference recently to speak out against Gov. Kathy Hochul’s housing proposal, which Ben-Levy said is “fundamentally unfair” and impacts the school district with a potential influx of students.
The board also voted to approve the Nassau BOCES budget of $25,220,812, as well as candidates Deborah Coates, Lawrence Greenstein and Eric Schultz to the three available seats on the BOCES board.
Ben-Levy said that BOCES’ budget is increasing this year and the administrative costs are “astronomical” and too high.
The BOCES budget includes administrative charges billed to districts, which is increasing by 4.87% in the new budget, set at $31 million. This is compared to the 2022-2023 budget which sets it at $29.5 million.
Total administrative charges for BOCES is also increasing by 5.6%, going up to $31,683,170. The prior budget establishes the charges at $29,999,580.
While the Roslyn board approved the budget, Ben-Levy said they did not have much of a choice.
The Roslyn Board of Education will convene again on May 4.
