§ 1608. Estimated expenses for ensuing year. 1. It shall be the duty
of the trustees of each common school district to present at the annual
budget hearing a detailed statement in writing of the amount of money
which will be required for the ensuing year for school purposes,
specifying the several purposes and the amount for each. The amount for
each purpose estimated necessary for payments to boards of cooperative
educational services shall be shown in full, with no deduction of
estimated state aid. The amount of state aid provided and its percentage
relationship to the total expenditures shall also be shown. This section
shall not be construed to prevent the trustees from presenting such
statement at a budget hearing held not less than seven nor more than
fourteen days prior to a special meeting called for the purpose, nor
from presenting a supplementary and amended statement or estimate at any
time.

2. Such statement shall be completed at least seven days before the
budget hearing at which it is to be presented and copies thereof shall
be prepared and made available, upon request and at the school district
offices, at any public library or free association library within the
district and on the school district's internet website, if one exists,
to residents within the district during the period of fourteen days
immediately preceding the annual meeting and election or special
district meeting at which the budget vote will occur and at such meeting
or hearing. The board shall also as a part of the notice required by
section two thousand three of this chapter give notice of the date, time
and place of the budget hearing and that a copy of such statement may be
obtained by any resident in the district at each schoolhouse in the
district in which school is maintained during certain designated hours
on each day other than a Saturday, Sunday or holiday during the fourteen
days immediately preceding such meeting. The board shall include notice
of the availability of such statement at least once during the school
year in any district-wide mailing distributed.

3. Commencing with the proposed budget for the nineteen hundred
ninety-seven--ninety-eight school year, such proposed budget shall be in
plain language and shall be consistent with regulations promulgated by
the commissioner pursuant to subdivision twenty-six of section three
hundred five of this chapter. Categorization of and format for revenue,
including payments in lieu of taxes, property tax refunds from
certiorari proceedings, expenditure, transfer, and fund balance
information and changes in such data from the prior year and, in the
case of a resubmitted or amended budget, changes in such information
from the prior year's submitted budget, shall be complete and accurate
and set forth in such a manner as to best promote public comprehension
and readability.

4. Commencing with the proposed budget for the nineteen hundred
ninety-eight--ninety-nine school year, such proposed budget shall be
presented in three components: a program component, a capital component
and an administrative component which shall be separately delineated in
accordance with regulations of the commissioner after consultation with
local school district officials. The administrative component shall
include, but need not be limited to, office and central administrative
expenses, traveling expenses and all compensation, salaries and benefits
of all school administrators and supervisors, including business
administrators, superintendents of schools and deputy, assistant,
associate or other superintendents under all existing employment
contracts or collective bargaining agreements any and all expenditures
associated with the operation of the office of trustee or board of
trustees, the office of the superintendent of schools, general
administration, the school business office, consulting costs not
directly related to direct student services and programs, planning and
all other administrative activities. The program component shall
include, but need not be limited to, all program expenditures of the
school district, including the salaries and benefits of teachers and any
school administrators or supervisors who spend a majority of their time
performing teaching duties, and all transportation operating expenses.
The capital component shall include, but need not be limited to, all
transportation capital, debt service, and lease expenditures; costs
resulting from judgments in tax certiorari proceedings or the payment of
awards from court judgments, administrative orders or settled or
compromised claims; and all facilities costs of the school district,
including facilities lease expenditures, the annual debt service and
total debt for all facilities financed by bonds and notes of the school
district, and the costs of construction, acquisition, reconstruction,
rehabilitation or improvement of school buildings, provided that such
budget shall include a rental, operations and maintenance section that
includes base rent costs, total rent costs, operation and maintenance
charges, cost per square foot for each facility leased by the school
district, and any and all expenditures associated with custodial
salaries and benefits, service contracts, supplies, utilities, and
maintenance and repairs of school facilities. For the purposes of the
development of a budget for the nineteen hundred
ninety-eight--ninety-nine school year, the trustee or board of trustees
shall separate the district's program, capital and administrative costs
for the nineteen hundred ninety-seven--ninety-eight school year in the
manner as if the budget for such year had been presented in three
components.

5. The trustee or board of trustees shall append to the statement of
estimated expenditures a detailed statement of the total compensation to
be paid to the superintendent of schools, and any assistant or associate
superintendents of schools in the ensuing school year, including a
delineation of the salary, annualized cost of benefits and any in-kind
or other form of remuneration. The trustees shall also append a list of
all other school administrators and supervisors, if any, whose annual
salary will be eighty-five thousand dollars or more in the ensuing
school year, with the title of their positions and annual salary
identified; provided however, that the commissioner may adjust such
salary level to reflect increases in administrative salaries after June
thirtieth, nineteen hundred ninety-eight. The trustees shall submit a
copy of such list and statement, in a form prescribed by the
commissioner, of compensation to the commissioner within five days after
their preparation. The commissioner shall compile such data, together
with the data submitted pursuant to subdivision three of section
seventeen hundred sixteen of this chapter, into a single statewide
compilation, which shall be made available to the governor, the
legislature, and other interested parties upon request.

6. Each year, the board of education shall prepare a school district
report card, pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, and shall make
it publicly available by transmitting it to local newspapers of general
circulation, appending it to copies of the proposed budget made publicly
available as required by law, making it available for distribution at
the annual meeting, and otherwise disseminating it as required by the
commissioner. Such report card shall include measures of the academic
performance of the school district, on a school by school basis, and
measures of the fiscal performance of the district, as prescribed by the
commissioner. Pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, the report
card shall also compare these measures to statewide averages for all
public schools, and statewide averages for public schools of comparable
wealth and need, developed by the commissioner. Such report card shall
include, at a minimum, any information on the school district regarding
pupil performance and expenditure per pupil required to be included in
the annual report by the regents to the governor and the legislature
pursuant to section two hundred fifteen-a of this chapter; and any other
information required by the commissioner. School districts (i)
identified as having fifteen percent or more of their students in
special education, or (ii) which have fifty percent or more of their
students with disabilities in special education programs or services
sixty percent or more of the school day in a general education building,
or (iii) which have eight percent or more of their students with
disabilities in special education programs in public or private separate
educational settings shall indicate on their school district report card
their respective percentages as defined in this subparagraph and
subparagraphs (i) and (ii) of this paragraph as compared to the
statewide average.

7. a. Each year, commencing with the proposed budget for the two
thousand--two thousand one school year, the trustee or board of trustees
shall prepare a property tax report card, pursuant to regulations of the
commissioner, and shall make it publicly available by transmitting it to
local newspapers of general circulation, appending it to copies of the
proposed budget made publicly available as required by law, making it
available for distribution at the annual meeting, and otherwise
disseminating it as required by the commissioner. Such report card shall
include: (i) the amount of total spending and total estimated school tax
levy that would result from adoption of the proposed budget and the
percentage increase or decrease in total spending and total school tax
levy from the school district budget for the preceding school year; and
(ii) the district's tax levy limit determined pursuant to section two
thousand twenty-three-a of this title, and the estimated school tax
levy, excluding any levy necessary to support the expenditures pursuant
to subparagraphs (i) through (iv) of paragraph i of subdivision two of
section two thousand twenty-three-a of this title, that would result
from adoption of the proposed budget; and (iii) the projected enrollment
growth for the school year for which the budget is prepared, and the
percentage change in enrollment from the previous year; and (iv) the
percentage increase in the consumer price index, as defined in paragraph
c of this subdivision; and (v) the projected amount of the
unappropriated unreserved fund balance that will be retained if the
proposed budget is adopted, the projected amount of the reserved fund
balance, the projected amount of the appropriated fund balance, the
percentage of the proposed budget that the unappropriated unreserved
fund balance represents, the actual unappropriated unreserved fund
balance retained in the school district budget for the preceding school
year, and the percentage of the school district budget for the preceding
school year that the actual unappropriated unreserved fund balance
represents, and a schedule of reserve funds, setting forth the name of
each reserve fund, a description of its purpose, the balance as of the
close of the third quarter of the current school district fiscal year
and a brief statement explaining any plans for the use of each such
reserve fund for the ensuing fiscal year.

b. A copy of the property tax report card prepared for the annual
district meeting shall be submitted to the department in the manner
prescribed by the department by the end of the business day next
following approval of the report card by the trustee or board of
trustees, but no later than twenty-four days prior to the statewide
uniform voting day. The department shall compile such data for all
school districts whose budgets are subject to a vote of the qualified
voters and shall make such compilation available electronically at least
ten days prior to the statewide uniform voting day.

c. For purposes of this subdivision, "percentage increase in the
consumer price index" shall mean the percentage that represents the
product of one hundred and the quotient of: (i) the average of the
national consumer price indexes determined by the United States
department of labor for the twelve-month period preceding January first
of the current year minus the average of the national consumer price
indexes determined by the United States department of labor for the
twelve-month period preceding January first of the prior year, divided
by (ii) the average of the national consumer price indexes determined by
the United States department of labor for the twelve-month period
preceding January first of the prior year, with the result expressed as
a decimal to two places.