The Hudson City School District Board of Education voted Tuesday night to approve a more than $59 million budget that would help close a $4 million budget gap and is expected to cut 12 teachers, 11 aides and some student supports.
The board-approved 2026-2027 school year budget calls for a tax levy increase of 5.8% and would draw nearly $2 million from the district’s unassigned fund balance.
Many teachers from the district, like Laurie Campbell, who spoke at Tuesday night’s meeting acknowledged the painful need to close the budget gap.
Campbell is a reading teacher at Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School and said learning to read is a fundamental right for children. She asked why only one central school district position was being cut, when their salary could pay for half a dozen aides.
“Two reading specialists, two speech pathologists, two school psychologists. We are not simply extra support. We are not an additional luxury item that we have become accustomed to in our district that can be easily crossed off a budgetary list. We are specialists in our field who provide intensive support to those who need it most. We allow our children the chance to soar,” Campbell said.
The adoption came after much public debate, with district leaders saying they had looked at many ways to help present a balanced budget, but teachers and school community members opposing possible staff and programming cuts.
Interim Superintendent Brian Bailey said much of the deficit comes from unplanned expenses, including increased health care costs and an almost $1 million adjustment in pharmaceutical costs.
The budget gap was also due, in part, to the district's improper use of financial planning software it implemented in 2016, the Times Union reported.
The budget will go to a public vote on May 19.
