The North Shore School District is proposing a $120 million budget and a tax levy of $89 million for the 2023-24 school year, with losses of revenue and inflationary costs on the mind of the board.

This budget is increasing by about 3.8%, compared to the current academic year’s budget of nearly $116 million. This reflects a trend of increasing budgets over the previous five years. The tax levy is also increasing by approximately 3.8%.

The district board of education convened Thursday night to review the budget, the first review since the budget was presented on Feb. 2. One more budget meeting will be held on March 9 before the budget is approved on March 23 and voted on May 16.

Superintendent Christopher Zublionis said in the meeting that while the North Shore’s budget increase is below their year-to-year budget increase parameters, he is seeing more local school districts “than usual” above their budget-to-budget increases. He attributed this to high inflation.

Zublionis said that the tax cap is being modified, bringing down the maximum tax cap amount slightly. He said this was due to “late, breaking numbers” in BOCES capital expenditures and state building aid.

The district’s budget is also considering budget pressures, Zublionis said at the meeting, of about $10.6 million. This includes a loss of $3.5 million in revenue, encompassing the loss of revenue from LIPA and grant losses. The district is also anticipating $7.1 million in new expenses.

“That number that we are talking about is being really driven by this inflationary environment,” Zublionis said. “That [$7.1 million] number is something that other districts are experiencing, too, with inflationary costs, the cost of health care, benefits, fuel, heat. Anything that is a kind of overhead cost for a school district has gone up.”

While the district is anticipating the loss of LIPA direct assessment revenue relative to last year and the tax increase coupled with that, the district did receive an increase in state aid of about $2.5 million overall.

“Unfortunately that is not enough to offset those new expenses,” Zublionis said.

The district has applied for more grants, and continues to, but have not received any yet. The possible addition of grants would reflect in their revenue.

One trustee questioned the board’s use of reserve money in the budget and the increase of its use in the future.

“This is the big picture of what we’re doing here,” board President Dave Ludmar said. “It’s not just revenue projections for 4-5 years from now, but it’s also a way that we have grafted a long-term approach to be able to get through this. I think the message has been for a couple of years that there was going to be a four-pronged approach to how we’re going to be able to handle this… We have [reserves] and we need them for that ‘rainy day,’ but here we are.”

The next budget review will be held at 7:45 p.m. on March 9 in the Glenwood Landing Auditorium.