The Westchester Brief | 03.31.26: Yonkers Schools Are $101M Short

IN-PLAYER SHOW NOTES
Yonkers Public Schools faces a $101 million budget gap for the 2026-27 school year. The district serves 23,000 students, has a 93% graduation rate — the highest among New York's Big Five — and is running out of reserves. The state funding formula groups Yonkers with rural counties 90 miles north instead of Westchester. The budget deadline is tomorrow. Plus: the Cesar Chavez school renaming debate, Pleasantville's $17.5M bond vote, and the Rye Lake Water Filtration Plant breaks ground.

In This Episode:
0:00 Cold Open: $101 million gap, budget deadline tomorrow
0:40 Superintendent Soler on the last of the reserves
1:30 The Foundation Aid Formula problem
2:30 Rockefeller Institute findings on the cost index
3:15 Special education costs and healthcare surges
4:00 Governor's budget vs. Senate and Assembly proposals
4:30 Quick Hits: Cesar Chavez school, Pleasantville bond, Rye Lake plant
6:15 Closing remarks

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

23,000 students, a$101 million budget gap, and a state funding formula that treats Yonkers like it's in the CAT skills. The state budget deadline is tomorrow. This is the Westchester Brief. I'm Jim. Let's get into it. Yonkers Public Schools is facing the most consequential budget crisis in its modern history. A$101 million gap for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Superintendent Honibal Suller has been blunt. This year is the last of our reserves. We have about$24 million in reserves. We're planning to use$18 million. After that, no cushion. How does a district serving$33,000 students end up$101 million short? The answer isn't mismanagement. It's math. New York State's Foundation Aid formula groups Yonkers with Sullivan and Ulster counties for its regional cost index. Rural low wage areas 90 miles north. Yonkers sits in Westchester, the most expensive county in the state. State aid is calculated as if costs match Monticello instead of Mount Vernon. A Rockefeller Institute report quantified the damage, updating the index to reflect Yonkers' actual location would close 17 million annually. A wage-based index would close 47 million. The state has known for years. Meanwhile, special education costs surge 50% in four years to$84 million, healthcare up$12 million annually. These aren't discretionary. Special education is federally mandated. Mayor Mike Spano's argument to Albany was direct. Yonkers contributes$298 million annually to its schools, more than Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse combined. The city broke the tax cap. The problem isn't local effort, it's state equity. Yonkers' graduation rate hit 93%, highest among the big five. Music, arts, and counseling programs expanded under federal ARPA funding that has now expired. If no relief comes, those programs get cut. Teaching positions get eliminated. Governor Hoachwell's budget offers a 1% minimum increase, no cost index fix. The Senate bumps foundation aid by$285 million. The Assembly goes further at$1.4 billion. Neither directly fixes the grouping trap defining Yonkers' disadvantage. The budget is constitutionally due April 1st. Yonkers can't wait. Layoff notices go out in weeks if nothing changes. That's the deep dive. Here's what else is happening in Westchester. The Caesar E. Chavez School in Yonkers, the first in New York named for the labor leader when it opened in 2018, may be renamed. A New York Times investigation surfaced sexual abuse allegations against Chavez. Superintendent Soler said all signs lead to the district having to do something significant. LAUSD voted unanimously to rename two Chavez campuses by fall. Pleasantville goes back to voters May 19th with a$17.5 million bond referendum. Voters rejected a$15 million version in December 2024. This time it split into two propositions covering athletics, STEAM, and security. Westchester Joint Waterworks broke ground on the Rye Lake Water Filtration Plant.$172 million, 30 million gallon per day capacity, serving 120,000 people. Operational deadline, July 2029. Share this episode with a Yonkers parent or teacher and subscribe on YouTube for the video version. I'm Jim, and I live here. I'll see you tomorrow.