RVC Community, BOE Weigh In On $3.7M Budget Deficit

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NY. — The Rockville Centre Board of Education held its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday night, the first meeting since the school district announced it was facing a $3.7 million budget deficit for the 2026-27 school year. The meeting featured further explanation of the school district's budget with public comment from Rockville Centre parents and community members.

Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Jacqueline Rehak said at the previous work session that projected expenses are outpacing projected revenue by $3,785,521. The cost of running a school district in Rockville Centre — and across Long Island — has gone up, district officials said, while the ways districts can raise money remain limited.

As of Thursday night, the cap on the district's tax levy increase stood at 2.06 percent, district officials said, an increase that would still leave the district short on its operating costs. To bridge that gap, the district has a couple of options at its disposal, including transfers to its capital budget, cutting expenses and "piercing" the tax cap, which would increase taxes by more than the current cap.

The board would need to a supermajority of votes in order to pierce the cap, Rehak said, with a supermajority defined as 60 percent of the vote plus one vote. If that hypothetical cap-piercing budget fell short of the 60-percent-plus-one mark, the board would have to propose a revised budget for another vote or adopt a contingency budget.

In a sample budget presented Thursday, Rehak said the district could close the $3.7 million gap by increasing its 26-27 tax levy by 5.47 percent, more than double the 2.06 percent cap on its tax increase, and transferring $2 million to capital. That measure, Rehak said, would require a supermajority vote in May.

That version of the budget, Rehak said, would also allow for over $4 million in capital work and increase taxes by 7.43 percent over two years. Closing the gap for next year, Rehak said, “may not be solving the problem" facing the district.

Another sample budget Rehak presented included a combination of measures, wherein the board could pierce the tax cap to a lesser extent and close $2 million of its $3.78 million budget gap and make up the rest by cutting spending elsewhere. In that scenario, Rehak said, the tax would increase by 3.89 percent, meaning the board would still require a supermajority to pass its budget. In that scenario, taxes would increase by 5.85 percent over two years.

From the board's perspective, President Kelly Barry said the board has made no suggestion that it plans to pierce the cap.

“Just to be clear, the board asked you just two weeks ago to run these numbers through. We have not suggested at all that we are looking at or intending to pierce the cap,” Barry said.

Another option the board and the district administrators have discussed is reconfiguring the way certain programs are offered, including classes. Gaven mentioned examples at both the elementary and secondary levels wherein the district offers classes at well below the 25-student maximum class size.

“If we offer a class that we want to run because we think students would like it, an efficient way to do it would be anywhere from 18 to 25 students in a classroom like that," Gaven said. "We have typically run classes smaller than that, especially for electives and special programs. So when you’re talking about maintaining programs, that’s one of the things that does drive cost."

During public comment, members of the community made their own opinions heard with regards to the budgeting process. Rockville Centre resident Michael Schwartz told the board that the current financial bind ought to be kept in mind come collective bargaining time.

“I hear the rock and a hard place you all find yourself in, and you should be thinking of this meeting the next time there is a negotiation with the school teachers. You’re up against it as far as income and revenue from the state, and I understand that…But the next time there is a negotiation with the teachers and the administrators, this meeting should be kept in mind,” Schwartz said. “When I went to school here, it was a while ago, I graduated in the 70s — my senior graduating class was about 315 graduating students, there was a principal and an assistant principal. I’m guessing the senior class now is no more than 315 students, how many assistant principals are here now? Four? We had one…Again, something to think about.”

Elizabeth Carnaval, leader of Rockville Centre Special Education Partners and a member of the PTA council, said she objected to some of the rhetoric that had been used in recent weeks that framed students with special needs as simply “high-cost" when discussing the expenses facing the district.

“Families have come to us hurt and alarmed by divisive language used to describe our students. Referring to any group of students as 'high cost' or 'expensive' suggests blame, as if certain students are responsible for budget cuts, program changes or teachers being excessed," Carnaval said. "This rhetoric does not reflect an inclusive community, it isolates special education students and fuels division in our community. It also ignores a fundamental truth: Special education is not optional. It is a legal mandate under New York State law to provide a free and appropriate public education. These students are not budget lines to be trimmed, they are children entitled to services.”

Carnaval called for further explanation of some of the figures administrators had presented regarding out-of-district placements for some students, even asking the board to bring in a third-party to look into changing costs for lines in its budget.

For another RVC parent, the possibility of budget cuts in Rockville Centre schools was of deep concern, regardless of students' educational needs.

"You are failing my child, and worse, I’m allowing it, because my little boy doesn’t want to leave his friends,” the parent said.

For his part, Gaven said the district is doing its best to remember the impact budget decisions have on students, teachers and staff, which go beyond the line items.

“This has to do with dollars and cents, but it also has to do with real people at the end of all of these discussions," Gaven said. "I mean students in the classroom, but I also mean classroom teachers, I also mean support people; all of our teaching assistants, our teacher aides, our building administrators, all of the people that do the work, dedicate the time and dedicate their care and understanding to our students for their opportunities. That is all in consideration when we do this. I don’t want anyone to think this is just about, ‘we’re just going to close a gap and that’s it.’ It’s not. At the end of every conversation, there is a human being, whether that’s a teacher, a student or both.”