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Q&A
School cleaning funding gap for fiscal year 2026
4:04:20
ยท
94 sec
Council Member Rita Joseph discusses the approximately $154 million funding gap for school cleaning in fiscal year 2026 with Chief Financial Officer Seritta Scott. They address the need for additional funding and the limitations of current resources.
- The $154 million funding gap is confirmed for fiscal year 2026 compared to 2025
- The funding gap is part of ongoing budget conversations
- The DOE would not be able to meet contractual obligations with the current level of funding budgeted for 2026
- The last ARPA stimulus funding rolled into FY 2025 for this area must be spent by the end of the calendar year and cannot be rolled over to 2026
- New funding will be needed to address the gap in fiscal year 2026
Rita Joseph
4:04:20
Thank you for not being shy about that.
4:04:22
Thank you for not being shy.
4:04:25
School cleaning, I know we support school cleaning cleaning at a hundred and 54,000,000.
4:04:29
There's approximately 154,000,000 funding gap in the 2026 for school cleaning that reflect that reflects that this funding was added in fiscal twenty twenty five and again not baseline.
4:04:42
Does New York City Public School plan to add funding in fiscal twenty twenty six for cleaning services?
Seritta Scott
4:04:48
So, I can confirm that in comparing fiscal year twenty twenty six to 2025, we see that level of a gap and it's a part of our conversation.
4:04:57
So, I know we've been talking a lot about, you know, the expiring federal dollars and what needs to be backfilled and one time funding that needs to be baseline and but that we also have our core, you know, operations and our school support services being one of them and also a part of our conversations.
Rita Joseph
4:05:15
Would you be able to meet the contractual obligation with the level of funding currently budgeted in the 2026?
Seritta Scott
4:05:23
And this is the reason why we would need the funding to be increased and we have the funding does get increased it's just one year at a time.
Rita Joseph
4:05:31
The last ARPA stimulus funding was rolled into FY 2025 to cover this area, will this funding be fully spent in 2025 or can any of it be rolled into 2026?
Seritta Scott
4:05:43
I believe that the last date is the end of the calendar year, so it has to be spent.
Rita Joseph
4:05:49
So, can't roll over anything, we need new money?
Seritta Scott
4:05:51
Yes.
Rita Joseph
4:05:52
I'm saying it for you.
Seritta Scott
4:05:53
Okay, thank you.
Rita Joseph
4:05:54
New money, got you, got you, new money.