Saturday, April 26, 2025
Charles Carollo, assistant superintendent for finance and personnel, met with members of the Hewlett-Woodmere Board of Education on March 12 to discuss and develop the budget for the 2025-26 school year.
Carollo and the board have been working diligently for several months on the budget, which will be presented to the public on May 7. Residents vote on it May 20. Here’s what to know about the proposed budget so far.
Proposed rate and fee increases for 2025-26
After several years of minimal or no increases to rates and fees, Carollo proposed ”modest increases” for the 2025-26 school year. The increases were attributed to salary hikes in required contractual agreements.
Fees that were raised include the use of district facilities, such as high school and middle school fields and field lighting, which saw a $5 per hour increase from the current school year. The use of the cafeteria, classroom, or gym/auditorium when school is not in session also received a $5 per hour increase in the proposed budget.
Carollo also presented proposed rates for the summer playschool staff. Trustee Shari Amitrano suggested that seeing the camp’s overall budget would lead to a better understanding of its finances, rather than just showing staff salaries.
“I feel like seeing a full budget for the summer playschool, as opposed to what we are paying out, I mean it doesn’t really give perspective to the size of the camp and what we are doing with that,” she said.
Carollo said that he would work on getting a proposed budget for the school playschool for next budget workshop.
The Hewlett-Woodmere Board of Education will be holding three more budget meetings before its annual budget meeting on May 7.
Board Members want the Tax Levy Lowered
Carollo presented the board with the current tax levy calculation. The tax levy is the amount of property taxes a school district must collect in order to balance its budget. The proposed tax levy came in at $111,047,087, which is a 2.27 percent increase over the current fiscal plan, or roughly $42.5 million higher.
Board Vice President Cheryl May asked if this number could be brought down to fewer than 2 percent.
“The way that our community is, I think that 2.27 is too high for us, and I am not sure that the community would support that number,” May said. “I really feel like we should be targeting a number close to that 1.95, to 1.97 range if not even lower.”
Her opinion resonated with fellow trustees.
Review Administrative Structure for potential savings
The trustees then discussed ways to create potential savings to lower the tax levy under 2 percent. Board of Education President Debra Sheinin said: “The board would need to find $400,000 in order to reach their goal of 1.95 percent.”
Board members discussed the teacher reductions that discusses at a February budget meeting, and suggested similar administrative cuts, to help achieve the 2 percent tax levy goal without harming student services, or using money in reserves.
They asked Carollo to review the current administrative structure, to identify any potential redundancies in the staffing.
