South Country, Port Jefferson, Greenport, Southampton and Three Village districts under 'fiscal stress,' comptroller says
The South Country school district, which includes Bellport High School, was designated as being under "moderate stress." Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Five Long Island school districts have been designated as facing varying degrees of fiscal strain, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced Thursday.
The districts, all in Suffolk County, were among 31 statewide highlighted in DiNapoli's report, which is based on information from the school fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. The comptroller's office said that number is up from the prior year, when 22 districts were considered to be in fiscal stress, including three on Long Island.
Of the five Island districts listed in Thursday's report, the South Country school district was the only one to be identified as facing "moderate stress" — the second-highest level measured by DiNapoli's office.
South Country administrators have been taking steps to recover after officials acknowledged the district overspent last school year's approved budget by $3.49 million. Those steps have included freezing all discretionary spending.
District officials did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Four other Suffolk districts — Greenport, Port Jefferson, Southampton and Three Village —were all classified in DiNapoli's report as "susceptible" to stress, the state's mildest of three categories.
Jean Mingot, Southampton's assistant superintendent for business, said in a statement that he identified discrepancies in the district's cash and investment and liabilities categories in the comptroller's report.
"We will be contacting the Office of the State Comptroller to request a review and correction of the district’s fiscal stress score," Mingot said.
Officials in the Port Jefferson, Greenport and Three Village districts did not return requests for comment.
Loss of pandemic funding cited
A release from the comptroller's office said fiscal stress determinations are based on factors such as "year-end fund balance, operating deficits, cash position and reliance on short-term debt for cashflow."
DiNapoli in the release suggested that a loss of pandemic funding has put strain on some school districts.
"In recent years, pandemic-related federal funding as well as increases in state aid have provided districts with significant financial support," DiNapoli wrote. "With much of the relief funding having been spent, the number of school districts in fiscal stress has returned to pre-pandemic levels this year. As districts continue to adjust to these conditions, officials should make every effort to ensure budgets are structurally balanced to avoid fiscal problems going forward."
The release states that from the 2019-20 school year to 2024-25, districts spent $4 billion of about $4.6 billion in available federal pandemic relief funding.
"With this funding dwindling, in SY 2024-25, districts reported spending only $317 million in combined federal pandemic relief funding, a decrease of over 70% from SY 2023-24," DiNapoli wrote.
