North Salem Board of Ed examines proposed budget

NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - The North Salem Board of Education has gotten its first peek at the school district’s proposed $52,377,964 million budget for 2025-2026.

Literacy programs, student support systems, and district operations were among the top areas highlighted in an overview presented by Superintendent Dr. Adam VanDerStuyf at the board’s Feb. 26 meeting.

Filling in the details were Lindsay Eidel, assistant superintendent of business and operations; Vincent DiGrandi, principal of the middle/high school; and Dr. Roy Martin, principal of Pequenakonck Elementary School, aka PQ.

Costs in the literacy area involve supplies, material, and professional development for Wit & Wisdom, a comprehensive English Language Arts program that builds reading and critical thinking skills, and Arts & Letters, a program that’s currently being piloted in the 6th grade and will be, VanDerStuyf said, “fully rolled out” next year.

Also proposed is the addition of an MTSS (Multi-Tiered Student Support) coordinator and the discontinuation of FLES (Foreign Language in the Elementary School) at PQ.

“It’s really just a reallocation of a FTE (full-time equivalent) (position),” Martin explained.

The MTSS coordinator will lead and develop Academic Intervention Services (AIS) staff and programing and oversee AIS processes and procedures, lead and manage Teaching Assistants who provide targeted intervention, support teachers with using data to create student goals, develop interventions, and progress monitor student growth, oversee student data and support EduClimber implementation, coach instructional practices, lead education support team meetings, and support classroom teachers with academic and behavioral interventions.

The intent, Martin said, is to have someone “who can oversee a lot of the goals and programs that we’re putting into place.”

“We have lots of new reading and math interventions coming into place. There are practices we are asking people to pick up. We are identifying students differently for MTSS so we really need a person in there who’s going to be boots on the ground,” he explained.

“Being in classrooms, making sure that interventions are happening the way they should,” is a big part of it, Martin added.

VanDerStuyf noted that there were two sections of FLES (with two teachers) in the 2023-2024 school year. This year, the district “scaled back” to one teacher.

New Assistant Principal?

The budget creators are also calling for the addition of a second assistant principal at the middle/high school.

This will allow, he said, DeGrandi and Assistant Principal Dr. Kathleen Murphy to each focus on certain aspects of “instructional leadership,” a topic that came up both during “Community Conversations” – events held by the district to engage parents, teachers, staff, students, and residents in its strategic planning – and at the school board level.

According to DiGrandi’s presentation, the second assistant principal’s boots on the ground roles and responsibilities could include: creating and leading “restorative practices” work, assisting with Dignity for All Students (DASA) and Title IX investigations, making Anonymous Alerts and threat/safety assessments, handling attendance/tardy issues, overseeing student data, and supporting EduClimber -- an interactive district-level to whole-child data management that strengthens multi-tiered support system (MTSS) implementations, including student need identification and intervention effectiveness.

They could also assist with academic and instructional practices and help classroom teachers with behavioral interventions.

The position will be for 10 months each year. In other words, the new assistant principal will not work during the summer break.

Facilities and Technology Changes

The plan also reflects the “reclassification” of both the director of facilities and director of technology posts.

“For years, those two roles have been categorized budgetarily as consultants,” VanDerStuyf explained.

Earlier this year, the district changed the director of facilities to a full-time administrative position.

It hired Michael Grundig, who took over from consultant Dr. Joannes (John) Sieverding.

Prior to coming to North Salem, he’d been the Yorktown Central School District’s maintenance foreperson and a HVAC technician before becoming its assistant director of facilities.

Grundig attended Westchester Community College where he studied mechanical engineering and civil technology.

He is married and the dad of two children.

The board voted unanimously on Feb. 26 to appoint a full-time director of technology and innovation.

Chosen for the post was Meredith Dutra, who is currently employed by Scarsdale Public Schools as an instructional technology specialist.

Prior to that she was a K-12 STEM coordinator for the Carmel Central School District and had taught social studies and was a technology leader with the Somers Central School District. Dutra also was high school social studies teacher with the Clarkstown Central School District.

Her first official day is April 21.

Dutra earned her bachelor’s degree in history at the Ramapo College of New Jersey. She holds a master’s of education/instructional technology from Pace University and a master’s of educational leadership and administration from Bank Street College of Education.

She and her husband, Mike, have two children, Maddie and Wesley.

VanDerStuyf drew the board’s attention to the fact that, while the changing over of the two positions from consulting to full-time will increase the budget’s salary line, it will also result in a decrease on the contractual end.

Just the Numbers

The preamble?

Enrollment numbers.

This year there are 940 students districtwide. That’s projected to rise slightly to 951 in 2025-2026.

PQ’s enrollment, however, is expected to decrease to 441 from the current 446. The middle school’s will go up to 216 from 212 and the high school’s, from 282 to 294.

Spending plans are always looked at first from a “fiscally conscious perspective,” so that they keep budget-to-budget expenses under control while meeting the needs of students and also matching “goals we can all support,” VanDerStuyf said.

Dollarwise, the proposed $52,377,964 million budget for 2025-2026 represents a 3.64 percent increase over the current $50,536,389 million spending plan.

The proposed tax levy of $44,598,468 – calculated by subtracting revenues from expenses – is to go up by 2.9 percent, the maximum allowed under the state tax cap.

(Budgetary increases from 2021-2022 to 2025-2026 averaged 3.1 percent. The levy’s five-year average increase is 2.34 percent.)

How exactly this will impact each individual property owner isn’t known at this point.

The North Salem school district is somewhat unique in that it serves four towns, all of which have different tax rates, in two counties.

VanDerStuyf pointed out that final assessment rolls don’t come out – and equalization rates aren’t set -- until the summer.

The projected expenditures pie is sliced up into 11 different pieces, the biggest two of which are salaries (53.7 percent) and benefits (23.89 percent).

From the highest on the list to the lowest are: BOCES (4.6 percent), debt service (4.68 percent), contractual/supplies (2.43 percent), transportation (0.89 percent), special education (4.47 percent), equipment (0.35 percent), technology (0.88 percent), transfer to special aid (0.27 percent), and facilities (3.81 percent).

Besides the budget, stakeholders will be asked to vote in May on a $24.5 million districtwide capital project proposition.

On the middle/high school list are: interior improvements or upgrades  to the library and quad areas, exterior paving and concrete, ventilation units/systems, roof, and lobby.

Projects at PQ include renovating the library and multipurpose room, repairing exterior paving and concrete, upgrading roadway drainage, replacing exterior windows and window/roof flashings; restoring masonry, and upgrading heating systems.

The bus garage would benefit too. Proposed are improvements to paving and concrete, a bus lift replacement (The district does the majority of its work on buses inhouse. A new lift will help keep its mechanics safe, VanDerStuyf said.), an interior floor drain replacement, and upgrades to the diesel and gasoline fueling stations.

Three trustee seats are also up for grabs. They are currently held by Brandy Keenan, the board’s vice president, and trustees Deborah D’Agostino and Frances Havard.

Budget Timeline

A presentation on special education and pupil personnel and curriculum is set for Wednesday, March 12.

On March 19, covered will be buildings, grounds, transportation, technology, and athletics.

The budget recap will be presented on March 26.

It will be adopted by the board on April 9. A public hearing is set for May 7 and the budget vote is May 20.