The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District unanimously adopted a $49,844,975 budget for the 2026-27 school year on Monday, April 20, a $1,211,000 increase over last year.
The board’s vote was unanimous. The 2.49% spending increase will raise the school tax levy by 1.94%, staying under the state-mandated cap of 2.08%.
For the roughly 1,400 students spread across four elementary schools in Nassau County, the budget represents continued investment in staffing and special education services. For the homeowners paying the bills, it comes out to an average of $77.02 more per year, according to figures Deputy Superintendent Michael Frank presented to the board.
That number matters on Long Island, where property taxes are already among the highest in the country. Frank seemed to know exactly what he was asking of residents when he addressed the board.
“We came in below the cap and we were able to accomplish that out of respect to the community and trying to account for every dollar and understand how difficult it is to pay for things these days,” Frank said.
Keeps costs down. Stays under the cap. Spends carefully.
That’s the pitch the district is making ahead of the May 19 budget vote and trustee election, when community members will have their say.
Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Morrison-Raptis joined Frank in presenting the plan. Her framing was broader. “The proposed 2026-to-2027 budget reflects our unwavering commitment to our students,” she said. The increases cover staffing costs, special education investment, and facility maintenance, she told the board.
Frank went further into the mechanics of how the district got to these numbers. Resignations, retirements, and one-time purchases from the previous year all helped create breathing room in the budget without forcing cuts. He also credited the people doing the line-by-line work, calling them “cost-conscious budget builders” who took the community’s financial pressures seriously.
“Everybody who touches the budget process does so with such thoughtful consideration of the community in mind,” Frank said, according to Long Island Press. “They actually care about making sure that we’re coming forward with a budget that’s respectful to not just the community, but also to the children in the district.”
Frank also offered a longer-range perspective on what responsible budget growth looks like for a district this size. He described keeping annual increases between 2% and 3% as the “sweet spot,” and the numbers back him up. Over the past 20 years, the district’s average annual budget increase has been 2.87%, meaning this year’s 2.49% is actually on the conservative end of that historical range.
That kind of consistency is something Nassau County school districts often struggle to maintain, caught between rising costs for health insurance and special education services on one side and taxpayer frustration on the other. The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park district’s track record suggests it has managed the balance reasonably well, though the decisions never get easier. The New York State Education Department sets the tax levy cap formula each year based on inflation and other factors, giving districts limited flexibility on how much they can raise from property owners without triggering a supermajority vote requirement.
Frank raised one other point worth watching. Homeowners in the district also pay a separate tax levy for the high school district, meaning the $77.02 figure doesn’t represent their full school tax picture. He encouraged residents to track both budgets going into May.
Community members who want to dig into the spending details before they vote can review district budget documents on the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District’s official website.
The May 19 vote doubles as a trustee election. Polls open that day to all eligible district residents. District officials didn’t announce specific polling locations or hours in Monday’s presentation, so residents should check the district website for those details closer to the date.
At $49.8 million for a four-school, 1,400-student district, the per-pupil spending lands above many national averages, though that’s a familiar reality for Nassau County, where the cost of running public schools reflects the broader cost of doing business on Long Island. The question voters will answer on May 19 is whether the district has made a strong enough case that every one of those dollars is going somewhere it should.