Riverhead school board approves $211M budget: vote set for May 20

The Riverhead Board of Education voted unanimously on Wednesday to send a $211 million budget for next school year to district voters for approval.

The proposal for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which starts July 1, would increase expenditures by nearly $10 million, or roughly 5% over the current budget. The spending increase would be funded by a combination of $5.6 million in additional state aid, an increase in the property tax levy of $2.3 million, and an increase in $2 million from other revenues, according to the proposal.

The board’s vote sets the stage for the May 20 vote on the budget plan, which would raise the district’s levy by the cap of 2.16%; budgets under or at the cap only require a simple majority of the votes cast for passage.

The school board will also hold a public hearing on the budget at its May 6 meeting at Riverhead High School to take questions from the community. 

MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead school district proposes $211.4 million budget for 2025-2026 school year

Roughly three full-time equivalent teaching positions on the secondary level are cut in the budget proposal, Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business Marianne Cartisano said in an interview after last week’s school board meeting. Cartisano declined to speak about further details; administrators are still working on next year’s course schedules and staffing plans, she said.

Cartisano said more than 30 teachers took a retirement incentive offered by the school district, which will allow the district to eliminate positions by attrition, rather than layoffs. Retirement incentives are typically used to reduce payroll costs by replacing veteran employees with a high salary with newer workers paid at a lower salary.

The retirements will happen in phases, with some teachers leaving at the end of this school year and the majority of teachers leaving at the end of next school year, Cartisano said. Elementary school teachers, school psychologists and social workers that are a part of the union and opt to take the incentive will all be replaced, she said. 

“We also have teachers that may not be invited back based on non-budgetary issues, non-budgetary concerns,” Cartisano said. “So we are in the process of contractual obligations of taking care of that also.”

The school board also approved a retirement incentive for school administrators last month. The deadline for those employees to file their notice of retirement and take the incentive was last week; Cartisano could not immediately say how many employees took the incentive. Like the retiring teachers, administrators are expected to leave in phases; the agreement requires the employees to retire by the end of the 2026-2027 school year.

The school district is also budgeting next year to pay roughly $16.5 million in tuition costs to the Riverhead Charter School for educating 679 students, according to Cartisano’s presentation. 

In addition to approving the budget, voters will decide whether to authorize two capital projects proposed by the administration. Both of the projects will have no impact on the current tax rate, Cartisano said.

The first project is the renovation and improvement of the kitchens in the Riley Avenue and Phillips Avenue elementary school cafeterias. This project costs $2.93 million. The capital projects are funded by profits made by the district’s cafeterias and have no impact on the tax levy, Cartisano said.

The second project is a $28 million energy performance contract with Renu Energy Solutions for improvements to district facilities over the next 18 years, including upgrades to lighting, replacing and upgrading HVAC units, and gas and boiler upgrades at certain buildings. A contract with Renu was approved by the board Wednesday based on the opinion of the district’s architect, H2M. H2M judged the four firms that answered the district’s request for proposals and gave each a point score; Renu scored the best out of the four firms, H2M Deputy Market Director for Education Michael Lantier said. 

The project will result in district buildings reaching net zero energy usage and is anticipated to save the district $32 million in utility costs over the project period, according to Lantier.