Letter to the Community from Superintendent Andrew Patrick

Here is a letter from Scarsdale Schools Superintendent Drew Patrick. He encourages everyone, with or without children in the schools, to read the letter to gain an understanding of the school budget.

Dear Scarsdale Community,

I am writing to you today to share important information about the work underway to develop our 2026-27 school budget. On Monday evening, the Board of Education is scheduled to meet for the third and final Budget Study Session related to the proposed 2026-27 school budget. During that meeting, the District Administration anticipates presenting a tax cap compliant budget. Arriving at this budget has required difficult choices, and I want to communicate as clearly as possible the rationale for decisions that we will present and discuss during the meeting. I know that the budget process is not something everyone in our community tunes into regularly, so I hope you find this helpful. The message is followed by several frequently asked questions in case you are interested in a deeper understanding of the situation we find ourselves in.

Members of our community who have followed school budgeting for a long time will recognize that the process has been more strenuous and difficult over the past several years. Historically, Scarsdale has been a district that has been appropriately resourced which has enabled program innovation, expansion to take place while maintaining outstanding educational outcomes. This community has shown a level of financial support that reflects the real cost and value of an exemplary public education, more so than in many (dare I say most?) other places. In recent years, however, our ability to do more has been restricted by the normalization of 2% growth brought about by the tax cap. In fact, in some ways we are doing the same with less, as the pace of inflation has outstripped the growth of our budgetary resources (click here for a good NYSSBA article about this). While a tax cap override is a tool available to the Board, I believe evidence suggests it is a tool to be used judiciously and prudently. An unsuccessful budget vote is a worst-case scenario. Our community did support a significant override (4.45% tax increase) in 2024. This year, we are asking the community to not only support a budget, but also a $101 million bond referendum to make much needed capital improvements to aging buildings across our district. With that as background, I invite you to read on to learn more about where we stand with respect to the 2026-27 proposed budget.

Sincerely,
Dr. Drew Patrick
Superintendent

Read the balance of the letter here: