South Country school district warns of more cuts as new report details fiscal mismanagement

Class sizes would rise significantly, more jobs would be eliminated and academic courses would be reduced if the state does not let the South Country school district borrow millions of dollars to balance its budget, the schools superintendent told the community ahead of a meeting Wednesday.

District officials are expected to present the latest 2026-27 budget plan at Wednesday's school board meeting, which could call for additional cuts, on top of the $8.3 million in reductions already proposed. The deeper cuts would be necessary, officials said, if the state does not approve the district's request to borrow up to $15 million.

The district is scheduled to adopt its budget on April 22. School officials are hoping the authorization will be included in the state budget, which has not been finalized.

"These would not be temporary adjustments," Superintendent Antonio Santana said of the potential additional cuts. "These would be changes that would fundamentally alter the educational experience in South Country, and once lost, they would not be easily restored."

The district’s fiscal trouble surfaced last spring, when school officials voted to cut more than 50 positions to make up a shortfall in the 2025-26 budget. Then in the fall, outside auditors found the district had overspent its budget for the 2024-25 school year by $3.5 million.

Another eight positions have been eliminated during this school year and the district froze discretionary spending. And even if the state approves the borrowing, officials have proposed to cut nearly 60 positions for the 2026-27 school year.

In a letter to the community Friday, Santana said the deficit financing will offer “a pathway to stabilize the district.”

State Sen. Dean Murray (R-East Patchogue) declined to comment through his chief of staff. Assemb. Joe DeStefano (R-Medford) did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

How did South Country get here?

In a report released Friday, the state comptroller's office reviewed South Country's budgets for 2024-25 and 2025-26, as well as its proposed plan for the upcoming year.

Deputy Comptroller Robin L. Lois found that the district significantly underestimated its expenses in the past two budgets.

For example, the district budgeted $100,000 for terminal leave payouts and sick leave buybacks in 2024-25 when actual costs topped $1 million. In the prior two years, these costs had averaged $875,000, according to the report.

For special education services paid to BOCES, the district had budgeted $5.8 million in 2024-25 — more than $1 million less than the actual cost and about 6% less than what the district had paid for those services the year prior, the report found.

Lois also noted in the report that the district relied on more than $8 million in "non-recurring" funding, such as pandemic relief, to pay for program and staffing costs.

"If these non-recurring funding sources are used for recurring costs, once these funds are exhausted, new funding sources, such as increases in taxes or cuts in expenditures, are required to balance future budgets," she wrote.

The district is projected to have a $10.5 million deficit when the current fiscal year ends in June, Lois found. But she cautioned that borrowing to make up the shortfall might offer immediate relief but would further raise the district's deficit.

Lois noted that the district's former assistant superintendent for finance and management services, Jennifer Segui, was responsible for developing the past two budgets. She resigned in October and could not be reached for comment.

Santana said the district brought in veteran educator John Belmonte to serve as acting assistant superintendent for finance and management services and has implemented stronger internal controls.

Staffing, bond concerns

Trustee Chris Picini, who is in his 14th year on the school board, believes the district's fiscal woes actually started two decades ago, when it took out bonds totaling more than $100 million to pay for capital projects.

The district was eligible for reimbursement from the state but the problem, as he and others saw it, is that the bonds were to be repaid over 20 years but the aid was disbursed for 15 years. In his letter to the community, Santana explained that meant the district had to carry debt service costs for the remaining years without the same level of state aid to offset them.

Student enrollment and staffing levels have also been an issue, Picini said.

From 2016-17 to 2024-25, enrollment dropped 12%, from 4,325 to 3,798 students. The number of classroom teachers slightly decreased, from 387 to 379, but overall staffing increased nearly 36%, from 724 to 983, according to the state’s personnel master files.

South Country officials dispute the figures in the state database, which are based on information submitted by local districts. They said the number of full-time employees was 761 at the end of 2024-25. The district did not provide its staffing total for 2016-17. 

“Our district is basically overstaffed,” Picini said in a recent interview. He said board members resisted cuts, however, in an effort to reduce class size.

“Because we weren't a high-performing academic school district, the board felt like the lower class sizes should benefit student performance," he said. "The problem is it didn't happen.”

Santana declined to comment on the district's staffing levels but noted that with the drop in enrollment, it was necessary to take corrective action.

Patrick Brady, president of the Bellport Teachers Association, declined to comment on overall staffing but in the past has said his members are concerned about the impact the cuts would have on students.

“The programs, supports and initiatives that have been built over many years to support students academically and socially cannot simply be removed without consequence,” he said at a board meeting last month.

Picini said that those factors, combined with skyrocketing costs in health care, transportation and contractual obligations and “a complete collapse in operations in our business office," contributed to the district's current fiscal situation. 

“Had any one of those … factors been the only thing we were dealing with, it would be a much different scenario,” Picini said.

Elective impact

District officials have said that core academic programs would remain intact in the 2026-27 budget, if they receive state approval to borrow.

Some electives and extracurriculars are expected to be eliminated or phased out, including French, which Santana said has seen declining requests from students.

French I would no longer be offered beginning in 2026-27. The higher levels will continue to run until the students in those classes graduate.

“The decision to phase out French was not based on the sort of value of the program or the experiences that were provided to children,” Santana said in an interview. “With the diminishing numbers… it just didn't seem sustainable to keep that program going.”

Bellport High School junior Sajdah Hayat, 16, said she and her younger sister have bonded over learning French together. She praised her French teacher, Inna Kucheryavenko, who she said teaches not just the language but European history.

“I've learned things I couldn't find anywhere else in this building: the history of Versailles, the origins of opera and ballet in France, the religious conflicts that shaped French society and a deeper look at the French Revolution than any other history class will teach you,” Hayat said.

Kucheryavenko said the drop in requests to take French was due to a personnel issue and did not represent a trend of diminishing interest from students.

“It’s been fantastic,” she said in an interview of her 17 years teaching at Bellport High School. “My students are the only reason why I'm still there because they need me and I need them.”

Kucheryavenko said morale has been low amid talks of layoffs and other cuts. If nothing changes, she said she likely would seek a job elsewhere.

But the veteran teacher said she worries about what the elimination of French would mean for future students.

“When you take [away] opportunities, you take possibilities from children,” she said.