South Country community mourns layoffs, budget cuts as tumultuous school year ends

Brianne Torre had planned to retire from the South Country school district.

But that vision was shattered this spring, when the English teacher was among the dozens of educators and other school staffers who learned they would be laid off because the district had to make deep cuts to balance its 2026-27 budget.

South Country officials have said  the district overspent past budgets by millions of dollars and its deficit was projected to be $10 million by the end of June. At one point, the district was at risk of running out of money to finish this school year; it took state intervention to avert that crisis.

After the district's first budget proposal failed in May, the district presented a new spending plan that brought the total number of staffing cuts for the 2026-27 school year to 94.5. That budget, which was approved, also called for eliminating or shrinking programs in art, music and sports, among other cuts.

Newsday spoke to a dozen students, parents and teachers about the district's tumultuous school year, which comes to a close on Friday. Many were wrestling with what the new school year will look like in the fall: who won't return and what courses will be missing.

Naomi Schindler-Schul, 14, is preparing for the loss of Torre, her favorite teacher, when she returns to school as a 10th grader. She said she was also told some of the courses she had signed up for would not be offered, including AP Computer Science and a piano class.

“They are classes that are there to help you explore and find out what you want to do in life,” she said. “It's a window for more opportunities and the fact that those got cut just means that we don't know if we'll get to explore those options.”

A turning point

The South Shore district has been in financial turmoil since last year.

To make up a shortfall in the 2025-26 budget, the district cut 53.5 positions. Torre, who worked at Bellport Middle School and  Bellport High School, was given what is known as an excess letter at the time. Her job was ultimately saved when voters approved the budget.

Then this year, officials proposed a 2026-27 budget that called for cutting another 60 positions and raising the tax levy by 13.45%.

Torre, 35, recalled fear permeating the schools after voters in May overwhelmingly rejected the cap-busting budget plan.

“It was just like this depressing melancholy all over the building," she said.

District officials advanced a new spending plan, cutting 34 more positions and raising the tax levy by 5.52%. Had the budget failed a second time, the district would have been forced to adopt a contingency plan that would have frozen the tax levy.

So when voters approved the budget earlier this month, many breathed a sigh of relief that the bleeding had stopped — for now. Some students said they cheered when they heard the news and were relieved to know they wouldn’t lose more of their teachers or classes.

School leaders said the budget’s passing was a turning point for the financially stressed district. Interim Superintendent John Dolan, who took over after Antonio Santana resigned, said South Country is on a path to rebuilding.

“We're going to be OK,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “Next year is going to be good. The next following year will be better. The third year, they're not even going to remember my name.”

School officials acknowledged the pain caused for employees notified they would lose their jobs.

John Belmonte, the district's acting assistant superintendent for finance and management services, who was brought in eight months ago to help address the fiscal crisis, said the correction action plan South Country had to adopt was probably the most difficult one he has overseen in his 35 years in education.

“There has been many days that I have left here with gut-wrenching pains in my stomach for what has to be done,” he said.

Patrick Brady, president of the Bellport Teachers Association, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Dolan and Belmonte said the district has put in place guardrails to ensure the district will not be in the same position again.

For example, Belmonte said the district must submit quarterly reports to multiple state government agencies for the next 30 years as a condition of the fiscal recovery package the state authorized. South Country was granted $7 million of advance state aid and permission to borrow another $11 million. 

“Our heart is broken, but the rebuilding process will be the healing,” Dolan said. “We don't ever want to let this town down again.”

'Grieving a loss'

Torre knows the impact a great teacher can have.

When she was a student at Newfield High School in the Middle Country district, she struggled. Growing up with a difficult childhood, Torre said she felt “seen” by her high school teacher, Rosemarie Campbell.

Her students now say she has done the same for them.

“She just helped make you feel.... like you mattered, and it’s worth coming to school,” said Olivia DiOrio, 18, who had been in Torre's eighth grade class.

DiOrio, a senior set to graduate Friday, said Torre inspired her to pursue teaching, much like Campbell did for Torre. The teen plans to major in special education and psychology in college — though now she’s concerned about the profession’s stability after seeing what happened to one of her favorite teachers.

“I never would have found that passion if I wasn't watching her give it to me and my classmates,” she said.

DiOrio said she wept when she heard Torre was among those losing their jobs.

“It was absolutely devastating,” she recalled. “I never cried so much because of a former teacher. Because it wasn't losing a teacher; it was losing family.” 

While Torre ultimately kept her job after receiving an excess letter last year, she does not expect it to be restored this time. She has given herself until the end of August to get a job in another school. But when the summer winds down, she knows her prospect of finding a teaching job will dwindle. 

With a 1-year-old son and $42,000 in outstanding student loans, Torre, who started working in the South Country district when she was 23, said she will have to consider whether to seek a job outside teaching or even sell her house in Rocky Point and move off the Island.

Both she and her husband grew up in Selden and they met in high school. Moving would mean uprooting her small family from relatives and friends.

But Torre does not believe they could continue to live on the Island without her salary, which was more than $100,000 this year. 

“It’s expensive to live here,” she said. “We planned our life around a career that I expected to have until I retire, and I chose South Country to be that place.”

Leaving South Country has been “gut-wrenching,” Torre said. On her last day with students on June 12, she said she cried all day and could not eat.

“When you are ripped away from [your students], it is traumatizing,” she said. “It really feels like I'm grieving a loss."