NEN district’s staffing proposal reduces 21.4 positions; budget currently at 2.2% tax levy increase

At the March 27 Northport-East Northport board of education meeting, district leadership presented the second draft of the 2025-26 budget. The prior deficit of $1,494,373 has been brought down to zero due mostly to a reduction of 21.4 district employees through attrition and repositioning. The staffing changes are in balance with declining enrollment, said Assistant Superintendent of Business Robert Howard and Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Anthony Davidson during a budget presentation. 

Although staffing cuts will save the district money, the current budget would still require a 2.2% tax levy increase, which is the state’s tax levy limit.

Draft two of the proposed budget is a 1.8% increase from last year’s budget and currently totals $191,321,578. The proposed 2.2% tax levy increase would cost the average homeowner (with a $500,000 assessed home value) $194. The district’s proposed tax levy increase is below the 2.9% average in Suffolk County, said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Dave Moyer.

“We believe that if we go deeper this year, and make deeper cuts, that in future years – next year and the year after primarily – each year it’s going to get tighter and tighter, and the decisions are going to be tougher and tougher,” Moyer said. The district is approaching the budget as a multiyear plan that will maintain the class sizes and programming the community values: “We want to do some careful planning to try to preserve those things because we know that’s really the essence of the fabric of what people are proud of in this district,” the superintendent said. 

Staffing, which is 75% of the district budget, was discussed at length at last week’s meeting. While the total cost of salaries is still increasing by $1,024,743 in the proposed budget (1.29%), that is lower than the contracted increase that would occur without the planned retirements, Howard said. Because of the district’s retirement incentive, teachers at a higher pay schedule are being replaced by less expensive teachers or their positions are being eliminated entirely, which “has driven a large savings and it has suppressed the budget increase in this fiscal year,” Howard said. 

Davidson also presented to the board a staffing proposal for the 2025-26 school year. He explained that the operating principle in the proposal was to create a staffing plan that’s educationally sound, fiscally responsible and focuses on long-term planning and sustainability.

“We have worked closely with the administrative unit, who understood that we had to make some changes and restructure, as hard as that was, and we worked closely with the UTN [United Teachers of Northport] and the board approved all of this work stewarded by the superintendent so that we can reach agreements, and provide flexibility and greater certainty at a time of of uncertainty,” Davidson said.  

During the meeting, a large presence of UTN members lined the Brosnan Building hallways leading to the cafeteria, holding signs that said, “How much change is too much?” “Change works when we work together.” And “Real leadership listens.” UTN President Stacey Weisberg told the Journal that while she supports Moyer and the work he’s done to reduce the budget through attrition and plan for the future, district staff feels that new district-wide initiatives, such as new AI guidelines and Future of a Graduate and STEM initiatives, are happening too quickly and putting pressure on teachers. Weisberg said that the initiatives are great, but moving at too rapid a pace, leading to overwhelm. 

Weisberg gave credit to Moyer for addressing in a straightforward manner issues the district will face as it nears the end of the LIPA glidepath in 2027. “He did come in and say, ‘We need a plan,” and he is working toward it. He really is trying to make it all work,” she said. “It’s just a lot of changes, at a very rapid pace.”

Davidon’s presentation began with graphs related to student enrollment, which has declined significantly over the last decade. 

This year, 420 students will graduate from Northport High School. This concludes a “bubble,” as grades 6 through 12 will have an average of 340 students (ranging from 303 to 359). The projected enrollment appears to be stabilizing in grades 1 through 5, with an average enrollment of 297 students (ranging from 283 to 313). The district currently projects that 280 students will enter kindergarten next year. Although the district cannot predict if this is an emerging trendline, enrollment appears to be leveling out, Davidson said. 

“We know that class size matters and we wanted to stay within the ranges that are expected here and customary, and have led to great success in this community,” he said.

Davidson presented the average projected classroom sizes for next year as follow:

Fifth Avenue Elementary: 18.8
Norwood Avenue Elementary: 20.4
Ocean Avenue Elementary: 19.7
Pulaski Road Elementary: 18.9
East Northport Middle School: 24.1
Northport Middle School: 23.8

For special programs, the projected classroom sizes for the 2025-26 school year are:
Fifth Avenue Elementary Special Class Grade K-1: 11
Fifth Avenue Elementary Special Class Grade 2-3: 10
Norwood Avenue Elementary Special Class Grade 4: 6
Ocean Avenue Elementary Special Class Grade K-1: 8
Pulaski Road Elementary Special Class Grade 2-3: 6
Northport Middle School Special Class Grade 5: 7

Davidson then discussed the proposed plan for staffing. At the administrative level, changes approved in December reduced chairpersons positions by 5 and increased director positions by 2. There was also one cabinet member added (the Director of Technology), resulting in a -2 net change at the administrative level. 

For the proposed districtwide instructional staffing, 10.4 positions would be removed through attrition or repurposing. Davidson pointed out that reductions, including two elementary level teachers, were made possible due to low enrollment. “Staffing has not changed in quite some years despite the decline in enrollment,” Davidson said. Two school counselor positions are also removed in the proposal, which is again due to low enrollment, and the remaining counselor-to-students ratio will remain low when compared to regional norms, he explained. 

Special education positions are reduced by 1.8 positions; those positions will be replaced with a districtwide behaviorist and a TOSA (Teacher on Special Assignment) Instructional Coordinator. The full list of staffing reductions can be found here.

For additional instructional and support staff, the proposal includes the removal of two teacher assistants, two teacher aides, two security guards, two clerical positions and one custodian, for a net decrease of 9. The security guard positions were already reduced this year by shifting meal breaks among the current security staff and “things of that nature,” and there will be “no loss in measures,” Davidson explained. The custodial position and one clerical position were also reduced during the school year. 

The net decrease of district staffing totals 21.4 employees. Davidson underscored several times that these reductions are made possible by attrition from retirements and, in some cases, the repurposing of staff. 

UTN President Weisberg confirmed that additional teacher retirement incentives were negotiated to include every year into 2026-2027, which will continue to save the district money whether the teachers are replaced or not, she said.

Davidson said that despite the present reductions in district staffing, class sizes will remain within the expected and traditional ranges, and programs will remain intact in alignment with student registration.

In addition to the staffing changes that play a significant role in reducing the annual budget by $1,375,213, other notable changes between the two budget drafts include the reduction of two large bus routes (made possible by removing cul-de-sacs from the existing routes) and a reduction in a YDA subsidy of $11,306, which has been used to fund the organization’s street outreach position. For revenue, Howard recommended reducing the estimated $1.4 million in interest income to $1 million due to the unknowns of large policy changes at the federal level that may constitute further rate cuts into next year. 

During a discussion among board members after the presentation, Howard explained that tariffs placed on the automobile industry will impact the district budget. “A budget is your best good faith estimate, and in that you factor in what your potential external factors are, so when you’re budgeting for fuel costs, you’ll budget more for potential worst case rather than likely. Now the worst case is more likely in many of our categories,” Howard said, adding that the district already received notice from the bus companies that tariffs are going to result in an immediate increase in bus prices; they are not honoring their bid prices, Howard explained. The district may have to purchase one bus instead of the planned two because of these increases. 

Regarding the federal administration’s move to dismantle the Department of Education, Howard said the district has only about $100,000 of federal funds in the general fund budget, which covers Medicaid cost reimbursements. Other federal funds are separate and not in the district’s general fund budget; if the funds were applied, they would account for under 2% of the district’s budget, Howard said. While any loss in funding would impact the district, Howard explained, NEN isn’t very heavily funded by federal dollars. “It will be challenging for us, but in some districts it will be unbearable for them,” he said. 

The next meeting on the district budget is April 10, at which time revenue and fund balance reserves will be discussed and a preliminary public hearing will take place. The budget will be finalized by a board vote on April 22. The budget vote and election of three board of education trustees will take place on May 20.

To view the March 27 BOE meeting, click here. To view the March 27 budget presentation, click here. The next meeting is on April 10 at 7pm, in the Brosnan Building.