{"id":203311,"date":"2026-04-20T13:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/203311\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:48:07","slug":"herricks-adopts-3-3-increased-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/203311\/","title":{"rendered":"Herricks adopts 3.3% increased budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Herricks school district unanimously voted to adopt the proposed district budget of $149,312,913 for the 2026\/2027 school year. The budget, which is a $4,769,703 increase from the 2025\/2026 school year, will boost the tax levy by 2.12%\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is below the levy limit. We could have gone up to 2.3%,\u201d said Superintendent Dr. Tony Sinanis, who helped present the budget to the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assistant Superintendent for Business Lisa Rutkoske said the budget increase is largely attributed to contractual obligations for staff,\u00a0 the special education program, transportation and benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not alone. These are a pretty common theme across districts in Long Island and in this state,\u201d said Rutkoske, who also presented the budget to the board.<\/p>\n

Rutkoske said they are primarily supported by the tax levy, with homeowners playing a major part in the financial support system for the district. Rutkoske said the board is looking for avenues of support beyond the tax levy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always conscious of trying to find that right balance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rutkoske said the district is expecting to receive an 8% increase in state aid, with $30,164,346 coming in from the governor\u2019s budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fortunate \u2013 not all districts receive this level of state aid,\u201d Rutkoske said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She noted that the governor\u2019s budget is still not approved as lawmakers extended the budget approval date two weeks past its original deadline.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Community members will have a chance to cast their vote May 19 at the budget vote and trustee election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sinanis mentioned that along with the budget community members will also weigh in on two other propositions based on the spending of capital reserve funds and the establishment of a new capital reserve fund. The CRF acts as discretionary funds that the district must ask community members to vote on their approval before spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not any increased cost for the community, it\u2019s not any new funds we are looking for.\u00a0 The money is already there,\u201d Sinanis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sinanis said Prop 2 will allow voters to confirm spending the capitol reserve fund on an ongoing boiler restoration for the district and an improved lighting system for the Herricks High School turf field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prop 3, if passed, will install another capital reserve fund for the school district. Herricks School District established a fund in 2015, and in 2019. Capital reserve funds have a 10-year lifespan, and as the 2015 fund reaches the end of its lifespan, officials said the district is hoping to establish a new 2026 fund to support building facility improvements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a catch-all fund,\u201d Sinanis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The meeting was also met with heartfelt congratulations and farewells for retiring board members and district leaders.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jim Gounaris, longtime board member, announced he will not be running for re-election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gounaris, who served as the vice president and as a trustee for the school board over the last 15 years, said his current term would be his last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI leave this role with deep gratitude and pride with what we have accomplished together. I have great confidence in the future of the district,\u201d Gounaris said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Guercin also announced her retirement from her position as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Herricks school district unanimously voted to adopt the proposed district budget of $149,312,913 for the 2026\/2027 school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[7739,67,65409,9,24,63,122,124,123,5271],"class_list":{"0":"post-203311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-herricks","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-schools"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}