District overview
Freeport Union Free School District
How Freeport pays for its schools, who decides, and what is underway.
How are Freeport's schools paid for?
Like most New York districts, Freeport pays for its schools with state aid and a local property tax levy, plus smaller amounts from fees, savings (fund balance) and reserves. The state caps how much the levy can grow each year. Voters approve the budget each May.
2026-27 budget: $260.8 million, passed 1,342 to 526
Voters approved it on May 19, 2026. The tax levy stays flat at about $87.1 million (limit $88.4 million), per the March 11 budget workshop.
2025-26 budget: $250.9 million
State aid was $146.2 million (about 58%) and the tax levy $87.2 million (about 35%). Fund balance ($9.2 million), reserves ($5.3 million) and other revenue ($3.1 million) made up the rest.
No tax levy increase in 2025-26
The proposed levy was $3.5 million below the state's $90.6 million limit and unchanged from the year before.
Costs rising fastest
Transportation was set to rise $4.5 million (about 30%) and special education services $1.2 million, on top of contract raises.
The 2025-26 figures above are the plans shown to the board in April 2025. The 2026-27 total and vote come from the May 19, 2026 recording; spending detail is not in the collected records.
What is on the public record
All funds, as proposed for board adoption.
Shown as zero increase over the prior year.
Passed 1,342 to 526. Up about $9.9 million from the 2025-26 proposed total.
Federal school data; not stated in a collected district document. Per-pupil spending is about $38,800 if the proposed $250.9 million is divided by 6,469; this is a rough calculation.
Dec 2024 to Aug 2026, from the district's Vimeo showcase.
Major projects
Superintendent leadership dispute and return
Settled July 22, 2026Superintendent Dr. Fia Davis was out of the role from spring 2025, with interim superintendents leading. On February 9, 2026 the district sued her over her credentials and spending (the district's claims). On July 22, 2026 the board approved a settlement and she resumed duties August 3.
- District announces lawsuit against Dr. Davis
- Dr. Shakira Miller appointed interim superintendent
- Board approves settlement; interim agreement ends July 30
- Dr. Davis resumes as superintendent
Funding
Not stated
Settlement terms and costs were not read aloud.
Fixing lead in school drinking water
Remediation pending as of the posted resultsJune 2025 testing found lead above the 5 ppb action level at outlets in nine buildings. Outlets were removed from service or placarded until fixed.
- Water outlets sampled (June 17-24, 2025)
- Letter to families about results
- Results summary posted
Funding
Not stated in the collected records
Cost of remediation is not in the posted documents.
2025-26 capital projects
Proposed in the 2025-26 budgetThe 2025-26 budget moved $7 million to capital and asked voters to authorize $2.5 million from a capital reserve. Recent work includes unit ventilator replacements and nurse's suite renovations at several elementary schools.
- Budget adopted by board for the May vote (proposed)
Funding
Budget transfer and capital reserve
$7 million transfer plus $2.5 million reserve authorization.
Recent news
Figures come from district documents on freeportschools.org and from board meeting recordings on Vimeo (publisher captions, machine-generated; not approved minutes). Agendas and minutes are on BoardDocs, which cannot be stored here.
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