Riverhead Central School District proposes $219M budget for 2026-27, stays within cap

The Riverhead Central School District has proposed a $218.9 million budget for the 2026-27 school year — a 3.52% increase that stays within the state tax levy cap.

Marianne Cartisano, interim assistant superintendent for business, gave the public a first look at next year’s proposed budget at a school board meeting on March 4. The school district will remain within the 2.91% property tax cap for 2026-27, which is up slightly from the current 2.16%. 

The school property tax levy represents the amount a district raises through property taxes to balance its budget. Ms. Cartisano explained there is a misunderstanding about the state tax cap being a flat 2%. In actuality, the calculations are different for every school district. 

“You’ve heard me say it before: We start with revenues — where we start with revenues is we start with a tax cap,” Ms. Cartisano said during her presentation. “The direction from the board that was given to me when I first started our conversations back in October and November was that we are not piercing the cap, so that was my starting point in doing the calculations.” 

On revenue side, the governor’s proposed state aid allocation for Riverhead schools is roughly $89 million. RCSD could potentially receive about $1 million more through programs such as pre-K or other state aid provisions, including the “Save Harmless” component of Foundation Aid, which ensures districts receive at least the same amount of aid as the previous year, even if enrollment declines.

Beyond the nearly $90 million in projected state aid, other revenue sources include more than $5 million in PILOT payments; roughly $2.3 million from foster and health services tuition; interest income; services for other districts and equipment sales; workers’ compensation, unemployment and pension reserves; and the application of fund balance.

Most of the major cost increases are for special education, Ms. Cartisano said. The district has set aside approximately $40.2 million for programs serving students with disabilities — a roughly $2.7 million spike from this school year. There is a $1.4 million increase in special education transportation alone. 

“Those costs are increasing dramatically, as well as the needs of our students,” Ms. Cartisano said. “Many of our students are coming into kindergarten already receiving early intervention services, which we are very grateful for, and we are big proponents of that … but they are coming into our district in kindergarten with well established IEPs already, and we need to honor those.” 

The school budget is broken down into five sections: General Support, Instruction, Transportation, Community Service and Undistributed Funds, which includes employee benefits and bonds. Out of the $7.4 million overall spending increase, nearly $3 million is allocated to instruction. The bulk of the increases within this section are for curriculum development and special education programs.

Expenses for transportation through BOCES for special education students have also increased by about $1.4 million, with a total of $2.6 million projected for next year.

Employee benefits will rise by about $2.1 million. In the presentation breakdown, Ms. Cartisano said increases in the budget are typically driven not by salaries but by pensions and health insurance. More notably, the employee retirement system rate rose from 16.5% to 17.6%.

“We do have increases with our CSEA staff, that’s not causing this,” Ms. Cartisano explained. “What’s causing this increase is the rate the state charges us on their salaries, that’s $800,000 — we haven’t seen an $800,000 increase to this degree [since] pre-COVID.” 

The teachers’ retirement system rate is expected to decrease by nearly 7%, largely due to retirement incentives and lower-salaried employees filling the positions of veteran staff who have retired.

Other financial pressures include a $254,539 increase in property insurance costs for the district’s roughly 80-plus-square-mile footprint. Charter school tuition also climbed $918,013, and Ms. Cartisano said the projected total tuition cost for the Riverhead Charter School alone would be $17.5 million for the year. A more detailed presentation on charter transportation, nursing, special education and other related costs is scheduled for Tuesday, March 17.

“I understand the charter school concept, I just don’t like the funding formula,” she said. 

Ms. Cartisano predicted the budget will be “a little tight, but very doable.” The school board will review the proposed spending plan again on March 17. The budget adoption is scheduled for April 1. A public budget hearing will take place May 6, and the vote will be held at Riverhead High School on May 19.

The full presentation can be found on the school’s website.