The Fayetteville-Manlius School District is proposing several cost-saving measures in addition to the use of reserves and fund balance to balance its 2026-27 operating budget.
“As we developed the preliminary budget, we aligned our spending every step of the way to our strategic plan to ensure that we are meeting our mission and vision,” said F-M’s Assistant Superintendent for Business Services Brad Corbin. “Our focus has been on controlling the costs we can and maintaining the programs and services our students and community expect.”
Revenue Sources
Funding for the district’s $122,496,620 preliminary operating budget comes from two main sources: state aid and the tax levy, which is the total amount of money the district collects from local property tax owners.
Based on the governor’s Executive Budget Proposal released in January, F-M’s projected state aid allocation would cover about 31.6% of the district’s preliminary budget expenses. The final state budget, with final state aid numbers, is slated to be approved by the state Legislature April 1.
A much smaller portion of the budget, about 5.1%, is expected to be supported through revenue from sources such as county sales tax and revenue interest.
The district’s primary revenue source is the tax levy, which is proposed to support about 63.3% of the budget. On March 1, New York state required all public school districts to submit their calculated tax levy limits for the 2026-27 school year. For F-M, its tax levy limit is 3.12%. This is the highest amount the district can increase its tax levy compared to the current year and still only need a simple majority of voters to approve the budget for it to pass. The preliminary budget does include a 3.12% tax levy increase.
To further offset expenses, the district is also proposing to use $3.4 million in fund balance and reserves as revenue, which is about $6,000 less than it allocated in the current budget.
Cost-Saving Measures
Aware that using reserves and fund balance is not a long-term solution, administrators looked for ways to reduce expenses while building the preliminary budget.
Costing-saving measures implemented include:
- Building administrators reduced budget requests by 2.20% compared to the current school year;
- The district would cut an interim assistant principal position, saving about $96,000; and
- Seven instructional staff positions would be reduced through attrition, positions that will not be filled due to retirements, saving the district about $650,000.
The seven instructional staff reductions due to attrition will not affect program offerings and were determined by aligning staff to enrollment and course section needs as well as sharing staff where appropriate.
Program Component
During the Board of Education’s March 23 regular meeting, Corbin discussed the largest of the district’s three spending categories, its program component, which is 71% of the preliminary budget.
Program includes costs directly related to instruction, student support and transportation, including teacher and staff salaries and benefits, instructional technology, special education, co-curricular activities and athletics.
Corbin discussed the 2026-27 administrative and capital preliminary budget components at the board’s March 9 meeting. At that time, he discussed how approximately half of the preliminary budget’s $6.1 million increase is due to debt payments related to capital project work. On March 23, he talked about the impact employee health, dental and vision premiums are having on the budget.
The annual premiums are increasing district wide at a 10.5% rate, this large of an increase is new to the district where past health insurance increases averaged 6.0% over the last 10 years, Corbin said. For 2026-27, the 10.5% increase correlates to a $1.8 million increase overall to the preliminary budget and is driving the bulk of the increases to both the budget’s program and administrative components.
On the program side, other increased expenses include negotiated salary increases, a $100,000 increase in athletics due to officials and facility rental fee increases and a $240,000 increase in instructional technology for software and hardware needs, such as new Chromebooks for student use, Corbin said.
Mental Health Services
The preliminary budget maintains the district’s commitment to all current mental health services with a $4 million allocation toward staff, services and programming. The plan includes current staffing levels of six family school liaisons, 13 school counselors and seven psychologists with staff in each of the district’s six schools.
Other mental health services would include a suicide safety/mental health educator working in the schools and three drop-in clinics with social workers, one each at F-M High School and Eagle Hill and Wellwood middle schools. Through Onondaga County, student engagement specialists would continue to be based at each elementary school, and on-site therapy would take place at the high school and middle schools.
next steps
April 20: Board of Education Overall Budget Presentation and Budget Adoption
May 11: Budget Public Hearing
May 19: Annual School Budget Vote