White Plains City School District's preliminary 2026-27 budget presented to Board of Education

The White Plains City’s School District’s Preliminary Budget for the 2026-27 school year was presented at the Board of Education meeting on Monday, March 9, 2026. The draft budget includes a 1.60% increase in the tax levy, which is compliant with the state tax cap. Superintendent Dr. Joseph Ricca and Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Dr. Ann Vaccaro-Teich provided the community with information on the spending plan, which will be voted on for adoption by the Board on April 13. 

Click here to view the preliminary budget presentation.

Click here to view the recording of the presentation to the Board.

A budget hearing will be held on May 11, and White Plains voters will decide on the budget on May 19. 

Click here to visit the budget webpage.

The district is proposing a 1.60% increase in the tax levy, which represents an additional $3,295,937 in revenue  . Dr. Ricca and Dr. Vaccaro-Teich reviewed the revenue, explaining the sources of income that include property taxes, state and federal aid, other tax items such as sales tax, other revenue such as interest earnings, and the appropriation of the fund balance – $1.6 million will be used from retirement reserves to offset growing pension expenses.

They also highlighted the reduction of the taxpayer share of supporting the district’s budget. In 2021-22, taxpayers contributed 86% of the budget through the tax levy. In 2026-27, the taxpayer share is expected to remain at a 10-year low of 74%, matching the 2025-26 school year. The district’s cost saving measures paired with New York State’s commitment to fully fund Foundation Aid has made this reduction in the taxpayer share possible. 

Since the 2017-18 school year, the district has used its annual savings and reserves to reduce the taxpayer burden by $191 million. The biggest impact for the taxpayer has been the fact that the district has not raised taxes to the maximum allowable by law. Over $26 million was not raised, which resulted in $1,460 in savings annually per property with an assessment of 15,000. 

The district has funded $71.3 million in capital projects over that time, eliminating the need to issue debt and saving the cost of interest expense. The district is also self-funded for tax certiorari refunds and utilizes one-time expenses to reduce impact to the annual budget. Funding future debt service payments, self-funding compensated absences, funding pension expenditures, a reduction of appropriations in 2021-22, and repayments of technology leases also contribute to cost savings. 

“This is really the result of continual work of finding efficiencies and taking those resources and making sure that we are turning that back in order to save taxpayer dollars,” said Dr. Vaccaro-Teich. 

Dr. Ricca and Dr. Vaccaro-Teich also reviewed New York State Governor Kathy Hochul’s executive budget proposal, which includes a projected $1.1 million increase in Foundation Aid. Expense-driven aid, which includes building aid, transportation aid, BOCES aid, special education high-cost aid and instructional materials aid, is projected to increase by $1 million. 

Agreements for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) by the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency and the City of White Plains promote development and growth within the city, but they have had the unintended consequence of removing assessments from the property tax rolls. This has unintentionally impacted district revenue since it can reduce the amount of taxes a school district can levy due to less growth in assessments.

Key factors affecting the tax levy cap include the tax base growth factor, the allowable growth factor, PILOTs, and the capital exclusion. For 2026-27, the tax base growth factor is 1.0005%, near zero, due to the increase of PILOT agreements reducing property tax rolls. The low-tax base growth factor represents a $2 million loss in tax revenue. 

The allowable growth factor, or the amount the district can increase the levy without a supermajority, is the lesser of the consumer price index (2.63%) or 2%. PILOT agreements are increasing by $1.3 million, and the capital exclusion – the amount that can be added to the tax levy for capital construction debt payments minus monies received for building aid and use of debt service reserve – is $4.7 million. These factors led to the recommended increase of 1.60% to the tax levy. 

Major expenses for the $284.93 million budget were then broken down. At 76.82%, the majority of expenses are dedicated to the classroom with $218.89 million budgeted for program costs. Capital costs, including operations and maintenance, make up 15.39% of the budget at $43.84 million. Administrative costs are $22.20 million and make up 7.79% of expenses

 “Everything in this proposed budget supports 100% of the programming, 100% of the extracurriculars, the arts, the athletics – everything that our children have available to them today is supported in this budget and within the tax cap,” said Dr. Ricca.

One of the largest expenses in the budget is staffing. The district has 1,237 full-time employees, of which 73% are instructional support staff, 23% non-instructional support and 4% administration. 

Employee benefits are projected at $70,625,119, and key factors driving increased expenses include increases to the employee retirement system (6.67%) and a health insurance premium increase of 8.7%. The five-year average for health insurance premium increases is 7.4%. The 2026-27 school year is year two of the retirement incentive, which has been reflected with $1 million in net savings. 

Other contractual increases making an impact on expenses are utilities (average increase of 5%), a 20% increase in property insurance, and a 5% increase in pupil transportation that includes additional routes. 

Staffing changes for the upcoming school year will be funded with existing resources, and they will include two sections of special education, one at Highlands and White Plains High School. One additional night custodian and security assistant are also included in the budget. The dance teacher position at WPHS will be increased from a 0.2 full-time equivalent (FTE) position to 0.6 FTE to accommodate for a new course. 

By law, if the budget is not passed on May 19, the district would have the option to hold a revote on June 16. If the budget fails a second time, the district would need to operate on a contingency budget for the 2026-27 school year. A contingency budget would result in a reduction of $3,295,936 or 1.16% from the preliminary budget, which would have an impact on funding for academic programs.

The preliminary budget represents one of the final steps of the district’s continuous cyclical planning, which begins with a strategic plan update each year. Then, the superintendent, Board of Education, buildings, and departments develop their goals for the upcoming year. In October, the long-range plan for the next five years is presented. 

Click here to read about the 2025-26 through 2029-30 Long Range Plan presented to the Board in January.

The Instructional Budget and Non-Instructional Budget are then presented in February before the preliminary budget is shared with the community.