The Rochester city school board entered into its first round of deliberations this week over a proposed $1.1 billion budget for the 2025-26 school year.
The district initially projected a significant budget gap of about $38 million. But interim Superintendent Demario Strickland said expected boosts to state funding helped close it.
“We still found that we had a slight gap," Strickland said, leading the district to cut more than 130 staff positions.
Many of the proposed staff reductions are focused on administrative and non-teaching staff at Central Office, he said.
The district's spending proposal represents a 3.3% or $35.5 million increase over the current year. That assumes the state adopts Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget recommendation to increase Foundation Aid for public schools by about $1.5 million. Lawmakers in Albany have yet to approve the state budget.
The district's draft budget shows increased spending at most school buildings. Edison, Monroe, Wilson, and East High schools are among the buildings with a seven-figure increase in funding compared with last year’s budget.
Decisions on where money goes are aligned with the school board’s goals to improve student outcomes, Strickland said.
“You will see that there's some significant increases in the special education department as a result of special classes opening, as well as some expanded models for bilingual programs,” he said.
About 5,500 students in the city school district receive special education services, according to district records. The most recent state data shows about 3,300 English language learners were in the district in the 2023-24 school year.
About 22,000 students are enrolled, according to the district, and that number continues to decline while charter school enrollment increases.
School board member Isaiah Santiago said he’s not convinced that staffing arrangements are optimal.
“I think we have more than enough staff in this district to have better (test) scores than we have currently," Santiago said. "But I think it's just about the organization of those staff ... and how their work is actually benefiting the students.”
On average, the district underperforms the rest of New York state in math, science and English language arts test scores, according to the 2023-24 state report card.
Strickland said that while this budget proposal is more or less balanced, he expects going forward expenses will exceed revenue.
School board member Cynthia Elliott said unions will need to adjust their expectations.
“These are not normal times, and so that it is going to require sacrifice if we're going to, in the future, balance our budgets with the unknowns with the federal government,” Elliott said.
The Rochester City School District's draft budget shows an estimate of about $4 million in federal funding for the upcoming school year.
However, it's unclear how changes on the federal level, including efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, will affect local school districts.
