School budgets, propositions were voted down in a handful of Long Island districts. What happens now?

Residents and school officials reacted with a mixture of disappointment and resignation after budgets or special propositions were voted down in their districts Tuesday, bucking the trend of decisive approvals across Long Island.

Voters in two small Long Island school districts  — Shelter Island and Elwood — rejected proposed 2025-26 budgets that would have pierced state-imposed tax caps. And in a handful of districts, voters rejected propositions to upgrade facilities and make other changes.

Overall, voters green-lit spending plans and propositions by wide margins. Of the Island’s 124 school districts, 122 saw their budgets approved by voters Tuesday. The majority of districts’ 100-plus special propositions also were approved.

Those results “show that the voting public clearly supports public education on Long Island and are satisfied with the quality of the education that is being delivered and value what public education brings to our communities and our economy,” said Robert Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association.

Long Island school budgets earned the approval of about 69% of voters on average, roughly even with last year’s 70% average, Vecchio said.

However, in the Suffolk County communities of Shelter Island and Elwood, school budgets failed to earn enough support to pass. The two proposed spending plans would have exceeded state limits on property tax increases, so they needed the approval of at least 60% of voters.

Districts whose budgets fail can put new spending plans before voters in June.

In a letter to the community posted on the Elwood district’s website on Wednesday, Superintendent Gayle Steele wrote the district “will immediately begin the work of developing an alternative budget” that prioritizes students’ educational needs “while being mindful of the concerns expressed by the community.”

More details about the new budget and voting process would be released “in the coming weeks,” she wrote.

Shelter Island school officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Cuts a concern

On Tuesday, Shelter Island’s school district sought approval for a budget of $13,855,325, up 5.77% from this year’s nearly $13.1 million spending plan. The measure would have increased school property taxes by 6.97%, more than three times the district's 2.13% tax cap. The measure earned the support of almost 55% of voters but fell short of the 60% minimum.

Shelter Island resident Jeanne Woods said she voted for the budget but she understood why some of her neighbors did not. The cost of living has soared on the island due to inflation and a spike in housing costs that is “pricing out” many longtime residents, she said.

“Frankly, it's overwhelming to somebody who's on a fixed income,” said Woods, 84, who volunteers with Meals on Wheels and other charities.

The defeat of the school budget was a blow to many parents, including Victoria Shields, 46, who has three children in the  district and previously served for about eight years on thePTSA, including as president. Shields said she worried the district would need to cut “vital” services.

School officials “work very hard to walk the line between providing the services that they know our children need and deserve and also not burdening the taxpayers with onerous taxes,” she said. The Shelter Island district had 176 students last year, state figures show.

In Elwood, a hamlet in the Town of Huntington, the school district proposed spending $79,395,286, a rise of 3.43% from the current budget of nearly $76.8 million. The plan would have boosted taxes by 4.2%, more than three times the tax cap of 1.29%. It won approval from 54% of voters, but that wasn’t enough to pass.

Maureen Mueller, president of the Elwood Council of PTAs, said in an email she was “disappointed” about the budget’s defeat.

“We are very proud of what our district has done to date and don't want to see any of those items change or go away,” said Mueller, 52, whose family has two children in the district as well as two graduates. The district had 1,960 students last year, according to the state.

In some districts, voters approved budgets but rejected special propositions. The failed proposals included a plan to borrow up to $38.4 million for an addition and other work on a Montauk school; raise $275,000 in taxes for the Shelter Island History Museum; impose new limits on transportation eligibility for students in the Sachem school district, and increase the size of the Brentwood school board from seven to nine members.

In Montauk, the district will present a “more palatable” proposal to the community within the next year, potentially in a referendum, said Joshua Odom, the district’s superintendent.

“The outcome is not what we had hoped for, but we certainly respect the decision of the voters and we remain deeply committed to the needs of our students, our staff and our entire community,” he said.

Sachem’s superintendent, Patti Trombetta, said in a statement Wednesday the district “will reevaluate potential options to streamline transportation in the future.”

The district’s transportation requirements will remain unchanged next year, she said. The district would have saved about $1.75 million if the new restrictions had been approved, but the measure’s defeat has no impact on the budget, which was balanced even without those savings, she said.

The measures went before voters shortly after Long Island districts learned they will get more than $270 million in additional state aid next year, an increase of nearly 5.4%. More than half of Long Island school districts will get a smaller increase — 2% — in their share of state aid, since the funds are intended for the neediest districts, Vecchio said. It remains to be seen how much funding districts will receive in the federal budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. Federal funding makes up about 5% of schools’ budgets, Vecchio said.

State aid makes up about 30% of the revenue districts receive. Annual tax levy increases are capped by the state.

Even though state aid increased this year, over the last few years it has “certainly not kept up with the pace of inflation, which is why you've seen districts, even though they're increasing their budgets and increasing their levies, they're reducing staff, they're reducing programs, because they're trying to close that budget deficit,” Vecchio said.

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott covers education. Since joining Newsday in 2012, she also has worked on the investigations team and covered real estate and the business of health care.