Second meeting on RCSD budget will be held Wednesday night

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A second meeting to discuss next year’s Rochester City School District’s budget will be held on Wednesday night.

Superintendent Dr. Carmine Peluso presented the budget in detail at last week’s school board meeting. It’s more than a 6% increase compared to this year’s budget.

Peluso says the district will pay for it with money from the general fund, special aid, the school food service fund, and federal stimulus funds. Officials also say the district has a nearly $170 million budget surplus in part due to unfilled jobs in the district.

The superintendent says the budget is balanced. The final budget is due to Rochester City Council next month with a vote scheduled for June.

This is the first time in district history that the proposal exceeds $1 billion and for the first time in over 130 years, the RCSD plans to enroll fewer than 20,000, hence the millions in surplus money.

This will be the last year of COVID relief funds. That means, next year, RCSD must rely entirely on its regular funding sources.