March 28, 2025
Health care costs in the United States have increased significantly in recent years, forcing school districts, including the New Hartford Central School District, to balance affordable health insurance coverage for its employees with limited financial resources.
Since the 2022-23 school year, the district’s health insurance costs increased 49.06% from $9,392,159 to a projected $14 million.
A primary contributor to rising health insurance costs is the cost of prescription medications, which has significantly increased. From July 1, 2024 to Feb. 28, 2025, the district has incurred a $1,039,955 or 32% cost increase in prescription drug claims for its employees compared to the prior year.
The rising cost of health insurance is one of the main factors driving the 2025-26 school budget increase. The district is projecting its health insurance costs to increase an additional $1,461,960 or 13.11%. Other factors include salary increases due to contractual agreements, increasing costs for BOCES programming and an increase in costs to pay down the principal and interest on bonds for capital projects.
To offset rising costs, the district expects the budget proposal to carry a 3.26% tax levy increase, which would allow the district to maintain all current programming.
Once the New York State budget is approved (expected by April 1), district administrators will know how much state aid the district will receive and can then finalize the budget proposal. The proposal will be presented to the New Hartford Board of Education at its April 15 meeting, at which time the board will vote on the adoption of the proposal to be put before district residents to vote on May 20.