2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 2 - School District Organization › Article 35 - Union Free School Districts › 1716 - Estimated Expenses for Ensuing Year.

§  1716.  Estimated expenses for ensuing year. 1. It shall be the duty
  of the board of education of each district  to  present  at  the  annual
  budget  hearing  a  detailed statement in writing of the amount of money
  which will be  required  for  the  ensuing  year  for  school  purposes,
  specifying  the several purposes and the amount for each. The amount for
  each purpose estimated necessary for payments to boards  of  cooperative
  educational  services  shall  be  shown  in  full,  with no deduction of
  estimated state aid. The amount of state aid provided and its percentage
  relationship to the total expenditures shall also be shown. This section
  shall not be  construed  to  prevent  the  board  from  presenting  such
  statement  at  a  budget  hearing held not less than seven nor more than
  fourteen days prior to a special meeting called  for  the  purpose,  nor
  from presenting a supplementary and amended statement or estimate at any
  time.
2.  Such  statement  shall be completed at least seven days before the
  budget hearing at which it is to be presented and copies  thereof  shall
  be  prepared and made available, upon request and at the school district
  offices, at any public library or free association  library  within  the
  district  and  on the school district's internet website, if one exists,
  to residents within the district during  the  period  of  fourteen  days
  immediately  preceding  the  annual  meeting  and  election  or  special
  district meeting at which the budget vote will occur and at such meeting
  or hearing. The board shall also as a part of  the  notice  required  by
  section  two thousand four of this chapter give notice of the date, time
  and place of the budget hearing and that a copy of such statement may be
  obtained by any resident in the district  at  each  schoolhouse  in  the
  district  in  which school is maintained during certain designated hours
  on each day other than a Saturday, Sunday or holiday during the fourteen
  days immediately preceding such meeting. The board shall include  notice
  of  the  availability  of such statement at least once during the school
  year in any district-wide mailing distributed.
3. Commencing with  the  proposed  budget  for  the  nineteen  hundred
  ninety-seven--ninety-eight school year, such proposed budget shall be in
  plain  language  and shall be consistent with regulations promulgated by
  the commissioner pursuant to subdivision  twenty-six  of  section  three
  hundred  five of this chapter. Categorization of and format for revenue,
  including  payments  in  lieu  of  taxes,  property  tax  refunds   from
  certiorari   proceedings,   expenditure,   transfer,  and  fund  balance
  information and changes in such data from the prior  year  and,  in  the
  case  of  a  resubmitted  or amended budget, changes in such information
  from the prior year submitted budget, shall be complete and accurate and
  set forth in such a manner as to best promote public  comprehension  and
  readability.
4.  Commencing  with  the  proposed  budget  for  the nineteen hundred
  ninety-eight--ninety-nine school year, such  proposed  budget  shall  be
  presented  in three components: a program component, a capital component
  and an administrative component which shall be separately delineated  in
  accordance  with regulations of the commissioner after consultation with
  local school district  officials.  The  administrative  component  shall
  include,  but  need not be limited to, office and central administrative
  expenses, traveling expenses and all compensation, salaries and benefits
  of  all  school  administrators  and  supervisors,  including   business
  administrators,   superintendents  of  schools  and  deputy,  assistant,
  associate  or  other  superintendents  under  all  existing   employment
  contracts  or collective bargaining agreements, any and all expenditures
  associated with the operation of the board of education, the  office  of
  the  superintendent  of  schools,  general  administration,  the  school
  business office, consulting costs not directly related to direct student

  services and programs, planning and all other administrative activities.
  The program component shall include, but need not  be  limited  to,  all
  program  expenditures of the school district, including the salaries and
  benefits  of  teachers  and any school administrators or supervisors who
  spend a majority of their  time  performing  teaching  duties,  and  all
  transportation  operating expenses. The capital component shall include,
  but need not be limited to, all transportation  capital,  debt  service,
  and lease expenditures; costs resulting from judgments in tax certiorari
  proceedings   or   the   payment   of   awards   from  court  judgments,
  administrative  orders  or  settled  or  compromised  claims;  and   all
  facilities  costs  of  the  school  district, including facilities lease
  expenditures, the annual debt service and total debt for all  facilities
  financed  by  bonds  and  notes of the school district, and the costs of
  construction, acquisition, reconstruction, rehabilitation or improvement
  of school buildings, provided that such budget shall include  a  rental,
  operations  and maintenance section that includes base rent costs, total
  rent costs, operation and maintenance charges, cost per square foot  for
  each   facility   leased  by  the  school  district,  and  any  and  all
  expenditures associated with custodial salaries  and  benefits,  service
  contracts,  supplies,  utilities,  and maintenance and repairs of school
  facilities. For the purposes of the development  of  a  budget  for  the
  nineteen  hundred  ninety-eight--ninety-nine  school  year, the board of
  education  shall  separate   the   district's   program,   capital   and
  administrative costs for the nineteen hundred ninety-seven--ninety-eight
  school  year  in  the  manner  as  if  the budget for such year had been
  presented in three components.
5. The board of education shall append to the statement  of  estimated
  expenditures  a  detailed statement of the total compensation to be paid
  to the  superintendent  of  schools,  and  any  assistant  or  associate
  superintendents  of  schools  in  the  ensuing  school year, including a
  delineation of the salary, annualized cost of benefits and  any  in-kind
  or other form of remuneration. The board shall also append a list of all
  other school administrators and supervisors, if any, whose annual salary
  will be eighty-five thousand dollars or more in the ensuing school year,
  with the title of their positions and annual salary identified; provided
  however,  that  the commissioner may adjust such salary level to reflect
  increases in administrative  salaries  after  June  thirtieth,  nineteen
  hundred ninety-eight. The board of education shall submit a copy of such
  list  and  statement,  in  a  form  prescribed  by  the commissioner, of
  compensation  to  the  commissioner  within  five   days   after   their
  preparation. The commissioner shall compile such data, together with the
  data  submitted  pursuant to subdivision four of section sixteen hundred
  eight of this chapter, into a single statewide compilation, which  shall
  be made available to the governor, the legislature, and other interested
  parties upon request.
6.  Each  year, the board of education shall prepare a school district
  report card, pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, and shall make
  it publicly available by transmitting it to local newspapers of  general
  circulation, appending it to copies of the proposed budget made publicly
  available  as  required  by law, making it available for distribution at
  the annual meeting, and otherwise disseminating it as  required  by  the
  commissioner.  Such  report  card shall include measures of the academic
  performance of the school district, on a school  by  school  basis,  and
  measures of the fiscal performance of the district, as prescribed by the
  commissioner.  Pursuant  to  regulations of the commissioner, the report
  card shall also compare these measures to  statewide  averages  for  all
  public  schools, and statewide averages for public schools of comparable
  wealth and need, developed by the commissioner. Such report  card  shall

  include,  at a minimum, any information of the school district regarding
  pupil performance and expenditure per pupil required to be  included  in
  the  annual  report  by  the regents to the governor and the legislature
  pursuant to section two hundred fifteen-a of this chapter; and any other
  information   required   by   the  commissioner.  School  districts  (i)
  identified as having fifteen  percent  or  more  of  their  students  in
  special  education,  or  (ii)  which have fifty percent or more of their
  students with disabilities in special  education  programs  or  services
  sixty percent or more of the school day in a general education building,
  or  (iii)  which  have  eight  percent  or  more  of their students with
  disabilities in special education programs in public or private separate
  educational settings shall indicate on their school district report card
  their respective percentages as defined in this paragraph and paragraphs
  (i) and (ii) of this subdivision as compared to the statewide average.
7. a. Each year, commencing with  the  proposed  budget  for  the  two
  thousand--two  thousand  one  school  year, the board of education shall
  prepare a property tax report  card,  pursuant  to  regulations  of  the
  commissioner, and shall make it publicly available by transmitting it to
  local  newspapers  of general circulation, appending it to copies of the
  proposed budget made publicly available as required by  law,  making  it
  available   for  distribution  at  the  annual  meeting,  and  otherwise
  disseminating it as required by the commissioner. Such report card shall
  include: (i) the amount of total spending and total estimated school tax
  levy that would result from adoption of  the  proposed  budget  and  the
  percentage  increase  or decrease in total spending and total school tax
  levy from the school district budget for the preceding school year;  and
  (ii)  the  district's  tax levy limit determined pursuant to section two
  thousand twenty-three-a of this title,  and  the  estimated  school  tax
  levy,  excluding any levy necessary to support the expenditures pursuant
  to subparagraphs (i) through (iv) of paragraph i of subdivision  two  of
  section  two  thousand  twenty-three-a  of this title, that would result
  from adoption of the proposed budget; and (iii) the projected enrollment
  growth for the school year for which the budget  is  prepared,  and  the
  percentage  change  in  enrollment  from the previous year; and (iv) the
  percentage increase in the consumer price index, as defined in paragraph
  c  of  this  subdivision;  and  (v)  the   projected   amount   of   the
  unappropriated  unreserved  fund  balance  that  will be retained if the
  proposed budget is adopted, the projected amount of  the  reserved  fund
  balance,  the  projected  amount  of  the appropriated fund balance, the
  percentage of the proposed budget  that  the  unappropriated  unreserved
  fund  balance  represents,  the  actual  unappropriated  unreserved fund
  balance retained in the school district budget for the preceding  school
  year,  a  schedule  of  reserve  funds,  setting  forth the name of each
  reserve fund, a description of its purpose, the balance as of the  close
  of  the  third  quarter of the current school district fiscal year and a
  brief statement explaining any plans for the use of  each  such  reserve
  fund  for  the  ensuing  fiscal  year  and  the percentage of the school
  district  budget  for  the  preceding  school  year  that   the   actual
  unappropriated unreserved fund balance represents.
b.  A  copy  of  the  property tax report card prepared for the annual
  district meeting shall be submitted to  the  department  in  the  manner
  prescribed  by  the  department  by  the  end  of  the business day next
  following approval of the report card by the board of education, but  no
  later  than  twenty-four days prior to the statewide uniform voting day.
  The department shall compile such data for all  school  districts  whose
  budgets  are  subject  to  a vote of the qualified voters and shall make
  such compilation available electronically at least ten days prior to the
  statewide uniform voting day.
c. For purposes of  this  subdivision,  "percentage  increase  in  the
  consumer  price  index"  shall  mean  the percentage that represents the
  product of one hundred and the quotient  of:  (i)  the  average  of  the
  national   consumer  price  indexes  determined  by  the  United  States
  department  of labor for the twelve-month period preceding January first
  of the current year minus the average of  the  national  consumer  price
  indexes  determined  by  the  United  States department of labor for the
  twelve-month period preceding January first of the prior  year,  divided
  by (ii) the average of the national consumer price indexes determined by
  the  United  States  department  of  labor  for  the twelve-month period
  preceding January first of the prior year, with the result expressed  as
  a decimal to two places.