Business Administrator - Letter to Community
Barker Learning Community,
The process of creating a school district budget is a comprehensive, year-long effort that involves multiple stages. It requires strategic long-term planning, careful preparation, formal presentation, and thorough review by both the Board of Education and the Budget Advisory Committee. The process also includes official adoption of the budget and continued communication with the public, culminating in the annual budget vote and Board of Education Election on May 19, 2026.
Summarized below are highlights of the 2026-2027 budget, as well as a comparison of changes from the current 2025-2026 budget.
The total proposed budget for the 2026-2027 school year is $22,916,892.
The local property tax levy will be $5,434,764, which is an increase of 2.85% from the current year and stays below the property tax cap. The actual year-to-year expenditures increase by 1.96%, which is less than the inflation rate currently at 2.4%.
A detailed explanation of what constitutes expenditures and revenue categories is found on page 24 of The Banner. This year, employee health insurance premiums are increasing 5.5%. Additionally, other increases for transportation and salaries are increasing at a rate of 3% over last year. Despite these increases, careful planning and eliminating unnecessary expenses enabled the District to maintain all instructional and athletic programs with only a 1.96% budget increase over last year.
From a revenue perspective, the District anticipates a State Aid increase of 2%. State Aid is estimated based on historic increases since the NYS Budget has not been adopted at the date of publication. The District will also use fund balance to balance the budget and increase the tax levy by 2.85%, Barker continues to make necessary capital improvements to the buildings using its capital outlay project allocation, and shortly will commence the $14M capital project, which was approved by voters in 2025. The capital outlay project does not impact local property taxes due to the aid received from New York State.
District residents, who wish to learn more about the budget, are encouraged to attend the public hearing on Monday, May 11th at 6:30 PM in the High School auditorium. The annual vote will be held on Tuesday, May 19th from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM in the auditorium.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 716-795-3113 or via email at cminer@barkercsd.net. Thank you for your continued support of the Barker Central School District.
Sincerely yours,
Connie Di Cristofaro-Miner, MPA, SDBL
School Business Administrator
cminer@barkercsd.net
EMAIL CONNIE Dicristofaro-MINER
Phone: 716-795-3113