The Rochester City School District is getting to work on its budget for next year and it's looking to include more community input.
The district — facing a 38-million-dollar shortfall — is hosting a community conversation at Central Office on Monday to talk about next year’s school budget. The event includes a “community speak out” for families, staff and students to share their ideas on what the district should put money and resources behind for next school year.
District leaders are expected to present an online tool that community members can also use to participate in the budget process this spring, called the Balancing Act Participatory Budgeting tool. That's something the Syracuse Central School District, another Big Five school district like RCSD, also uses.
“People had the opportunity to give us suggestions,” said state monitor Jaime Alicea, a former Syracuse superintendent, “But if they thought that they wanted to increase instruction they needed to reduce in the other areas. So, they could not increase the budget. They needed to work within the amount that was already presented to the public.”
Participatory budgeting includes community members in the decision-making process on how money will be spent in a budget, particularly in cases like this when public funds are involved. It’s something that school board member Beatriz LeBron has advocated for the past few years, but said the conditions were not favorable for making it happen sooner.
“It's hard to do and implement when we've had transition from both the superintendent and our CFO (Chief Financial Officer), because it does require that stability from those departments to sort of help us champion this,” LeBron said at a school board meeting in December.
LeBron said it also gives the people most affected by decisions, like budget cuts, a voice in matters that they are experts in because of their roles and experience.
“Oftentimes, those decisions are really happening with superintendents, the administration, the board, but the folks who are in the classroom and even families sometimes actually have greater ideas of how those cuts should look like,” LeBron said. “And so sometimes, I find that often we do get it wrong.”
The community budget conversation event is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday at Central Office. It will also be livestreamed on the district’s YouTube page, where viewers can ask questions and give feedback in the chat.
Strickland’s cabinet is scheduled to complete a balanced budget draft the next day. The draft budget book is scheduled to be finalized on Friday, Valentine’s Day.
Below is the district’s schedule for the 2025-26 budget process:
FEBRUARY
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Balanced budget completed by Cabinet
Friday, February 14, 2025
Draft budget book finalized
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Superintendent's budget presentation
MARCH
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Balanced budget due to the State Monitor
Thursday, March 13, 2025
Digital draft budget available for BOE
Friday, March 21, 2025
First round of deliberation questions due to Cabinet
Friday, March 28, 2025
First round of deliberation answers due to BOE
APRIL
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Board of Education Budget Deliberation Session #1
Friday, April 4, 2025
Second round of deliberation questions due to Cabinet
Friday, April 11, 2025
Second round of deliberation answers due to BOE
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Board of Education Budget Deliberation Session #2
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Third round of deliberation questions due to Cabinet
Friday, April 25, 2025
Third round of deliberation answers due to BOE
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Board of Education Budget Deliberation Session #3
MAY
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Board of Education vote on adoption of the budget
Friday, May 9, 2025
Publish Adopted Budget Book
