The New Paltz Central School District (NPCSD) is looking ahead both near and far in an increasingly difficult effort to strike a balance between the needs of its students and the ability of the community to contribute.
At a meeting of the board of education held on Wednesday, November 20, superintendent Stephen Gratto acknowledged the optics of shifting from a lengthy public hearing about a three-part facilities proposal that could cost as much as $48 million with a presentation entitled the short- and long-range financial plan.
The capital project proposal is divided into three propositions. The first proposition, with an estimated cost of $17,130,073, includes items associated with energy, safety and the successful operation of the school buildings. Because the items in this section are deemed to be essential for the successful operation of the district, it will be necessary for proposal #1 to pass in order for proposal #2 or #3 to pass.
Proposition #2, with an estimated cost of $12,110,992, includes mostly upgrades to existing athletic facilities. It also includes audio visual updates in the middle school auditorium and adding air conditioning to the high school and middle school auditoriums.
Proposition #3 features only one item — an aquatics center built onto the back of the high school. The cost of a new eight-lane pool is estimated at $19,219,200. This figure does not include annual maintenance costs or additional staff needing to be hired to maintain and run the pool.
Taxpayers in the New Paltz Central School District will be asked to vote on this three-part facilities proposal on January 16, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., in the gymnasium at New Paltz High School.
The short-range plan
In the short term, district officials are formulating a budget proposal for the 2025-26 school year, and while many factors have yet to come into focus, rolling over the 2023-24 budget as-is could result in a $4.47 million gap.
“I’d like to tell you that this coming budget season is going to be better than the last two,” Gratto said. “I see no indication that it will be. And why are we telling you this in November instead of February? Because we think it’s important. Budgeting doesn’t start in February, it starts as soon as the last budget passes. It’s a year-long process and we’re just we’re just unveiling it a little earlier because we’re also asking you to pass a capital project, or at least to consider the facts associated with the capital project. And you need to know that regardless of what decision you make about a capital project this is going to be a difficult year.”
Gratto stressed that the fiscal prognosis could look different over the next few months as the budget proposal comes into greater focus. The district is currently projecting no changes in state and federal revenues, with a likely tax levy increase of around 2.5 percent. That limit, Gratto said, is on the low end of the spectrum, and is at least partly based upon the desirability of New Paltz as a community.
“I was told once if your name of your school district ends in ‘Lake’ or ‘Mountain’ you’re not going to get any state aid,” he said. “We don’t have that name, but we all know how beautiful New Paltz is.”
Gratto cautioned that it is likely that reductions in staff will be necessary to fill in the budget gap whether the district uses $1.9 million in fund balance as it has done in the past or not.
“There may be people in the audience who say we should just spend more savings and of course we might end up doing that,” he said. “But that’s a good way to cause more problems for you in the future because you can’t pay for recurring costs with savings.”
One new recurring cost beginning in 2025-26 is the NPCSD’s share of a lease at iPark 87 when BOCES moves its Career & Technical Center there.
“It’s going to cost us $184,800 for just the 2025-26 school year,” said assistant superintendent for business Debra Kosinski. “And that’s going to continue over many years as long as BOCES continues to lease that building.”
Other areas that are still unclear are salaries, with three different bargaining units negotiating for new contracts.
While the budget planning for 2025-26 continues, the district is also thinking of the further future, one which is often even more difficult to determine. Preparing to roll with ebbs and flows is a critical component of long term planning.
The long-range plan
“For the long-term, we must look at the trends that we see,” said Gratto. “We must extrapolate the data to try to see where we will be in years to come so that we do not have a lot of fluctuation from year to year. Long-term planning looks at trends, assumptions. So the long-term planning is not as accurate.”
One area where the district must focus on is enrollment trends, and “right-sizing” the district to meet those trends. In the 2008-09 school year, the NPCSD had 2,297 students. That number remained fairly static for close to a decade before the start of a precipitous and steady drop. In the current school year, there are 1,691 students in the NPCSD. That number is projected to fall to 1,406 for the 2029-30 school year.
Gratto noted that while the student population has fallen from 2,169 in the 2017-18 school year to 1,691 today, total staff has declined from 426.2 to 409.5 over the same period. In monetary terms, the budgeted salary and benefits spent per student has nearly doubled over two decades. rising from $17,772 in the 2012-13 school year to $32,563 today.
Health insurance has also continued to rise, and district officials expect that trend to continue. The NPCSD offers two health insurance plans for employees, NYSHIP and NVP. Between 2014 and 2024, NYSHIP’s individual plan increased by 87 percent, and its family plan by 96 percent. Over the same period, MVP’s individual plan rose by 35 percent, and its family plan by 57 percent.
“If I could pick one thing that is breaking the bank more than others it would be health care,” Gratto said.
New Paltz is not alone.
“Most schools in the state are facing the exact same problems that we’re facing,” Gratto said.
Community information sessions for the bond proposition vote on January 16
• December 5, 12:15 p.m., New Paltz Rotary Club meeting at Garvan’s, 215 Huguenot Street in New Paltz
• December 14, 7 p.m., Water Street Market/Holiday Hoopla, 10 Main Street in New Paltz
• December 17, 6 p.m., Elting Library, 93 Main Street in New Paltz
• December 18, 5:30 p.m., capital project presentation/Q&A; 6:30 p.m., regular BOE meeting at New Paltz High School
• January 7, 2 p.m., Woodland Pond, 100 Woodland Pond Circle in New Paltz
• January 8, 5:30 p.m., coffee/tea with the BOE at New Paltz Middle School; 6:30 p.m., capital project presentation/Q&A
• January 13, 7 p.m., Jewish Community Center, 30 North Chestnut Street in New Paltz
Join the family! 
