2023 New York Laws › EDN - Education › Title 2 - School District Organization › Article 33 - Common School Districts › 1608 - Estimated Expenses for Ensuing Year.

§  1608.  Estimated expenses for ensuing year. 1. It shall be the duty
  of the trustees of each common school 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  trustees  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 three 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's 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  office  of  trustee  or  board  of
  trustees,   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 trustee or board of  trustees
  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 trustee or board of trustees 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 trustees 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 trustees 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  three  of  section
  seventeen  hundred  sixteen  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 on 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  subparagraph  and
  subparagraphs (i)  and  (ii)  of  this  paragraph  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 trustee or board of trustees
  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, and the percentage of the school district budget for the preceding
  school year that  the  actual  unappropriated  unreserved  fund  balance
  represents,  and  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.
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  trustee  or  board  of
  trustees,  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.