UPDATE: he South Country Board of Education adopted the 2025-2026 budget at its meeting on April 23. The vote was 5-1 in favor with board member Cheryl Felice voting no. The budget includes eliminating 51.2 FTEs across all bargaining units through a combination of layoffs, retirements and separations. They will be laying off 15 teachers and switching five teachers from full-time to part-time, Superintendent Antonio Santana,said. The budget vote is May 20.
Faced with a projected $3.2 million budget gap and rising costs for transportation, health insurance and special education, the South Country Central School District administration has proposed laying off the equivalent of 25 or more full-time employees, including teachers, and a budget that raises the tax levy by 3.48 percent.
The number of layoffs could change as administrators finalize a 2025-2026 budget to present to the Board of Education at the board’s meeting on April 23, superintendent Antonio Santana said.
Calling layoffs “a last resort,” Santana said the district looked for savings in other areas first, including renegotiating contracts with vendors and looking at restructuring bus routes to make them more efficient.
“The district is facing the very difficult reality of having to reduce staff because our expenditures are outpacing our resources,” Santana said in a statement in response to questions from the Long Island Advance. “This is largely due to significant increases in key operating costs—most notably in special education services, transportation and health insurance. These cost increases are substantial, often unpredictable and largely beyond our control. Despite the best efforts to cut spending in other areas and use reserves responsibly, we’ve reached a point where reductions in staffing are unavoidable in order to maintain a balanced budget and preserve the long-term financial health of the district. This is not a decision we take lightly and we recognize the tremendous impact it has on our staff and community.”
Class sizes could increase slightly but would remain small, and no programs will be eliminated, Santana said.
The district has seen enrollment decline almost 13 percent in 10 years, from 4,414 students in 2014 to 3,845 in 2024.
Pat Brady, president of the Bellport Teachers Association, said his union’s members are concerned not only about their jobs, but about the impact job cuts could have on students through larger classes and higher student-teacher ratios.
“We’re the ones working directly with students, so this is going to have the greatest impact on them,” Brady said. “This is about the students. We want to be able to provide our students with the best education possible.”
Brady said his members, who also include school psychologists, counselors and library and media specialists, among others, are upset they could lose their jobs at a time when other districts across Long Island are cutting back.
Some gave up teaching positions in other districts to come to South Country, Brady said. Many are district residents with children in district schools.
In addition to layoffs, the district won’t be filling an assistant principal position at the middle school, Santana said.
As for the tentative budget, the 3.48 percent increase in the tax levy, to $71.5 million, is within state limits. It is, however, higher than the average 2.62 percent increase among Long Island school districts as calculated by Newsday, using data from the State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s Office.
The budget includes using $2.3 million from reserves to pay for infrastructure improvements, including replacing boilers at the high school and replacing the running track surface at the high school, resurfacing the field events area, upgrading drainage, installing visitors’ bleachers and replacing windows in the high school gym.
Under the proposed budget, a home currently assessed at $3,000 would see an estimated increase of $267.31 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
Upcoming:
What: The vote on the 2025-2026 South Country School District budget and the election for three seats on the Board of Education.
When: Tuesday, May 20 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Bellport Middle School, 25 Kreamer Street, Bellport
Other key dates: The Board of Education will vote on whether to adopt the budget at a hearing on April 23 at 6:15 p.m. A public hearing on the budget will be held on May 7 at 6:15 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the district offices, 189 Dunton Avenue, East Patchogue.
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