South Country superintendent resigns amid $10 million budget deficit

Antonio Santana resigned as superintendent of the South Country Central School District on May 6 as the Bellport-based district wrestled with a budget hole that state auditors put at roughly $10.5 million and parents feared would mean more layoffs, bigger classes and fewer programs.

The South Country Board of Education unanimously accepted Santana’s resignation that night and named Jaclyn O’Hagan acting superintendent, with John Dolan, a recently retired East Islip superintendent, set to take over as interim superintendent on May 14. Board president Anne Hayes said Santana had worked with the board, district administrators, the comptroller’s office, the State Education Department and local elected officials during a period of “considerable challenge and transition.”

His departure lands in the middle of a financial crisis that has been building for months across Bellport, Brookhaven and East Patchogue. The New York State Comptroller’s Office issued an enhanced budget review on April 10 after the district disclosed an unplanned 2024-25 deficit in October 2025. Auditors said South Country was on track for an $8.7 million deficit in 2025-26 even after staffing cuts and spending freezes, and projected a fiscal year-end gap of about $10.5 million if current trends continued.

The comptroller’s review also said the district had an unassigned general fund balance deficit of $1.8 million as of June 30, 2025, and warned that officials would need to borrow $6 million to balance the 2026-27 budget. South Country’s own finance page says the plan contemplates $10 million to $12 million in state-authorized borrowing, with repayment stretched over five to 15 years, a move that could ease this year’s pressure while pushing costs into future budgets.

Families have already pushed back hard. On March 18, an estimated 1,000 Bellport High School students walked out in support of teachers as the district weighed eliminating 55 jobs next year, including 43 teachers and five administration positions. News 12 reported the district’s spending plan for 2026-27 was about $150 million and would raise taxes by more than 13 percent, while the state approved an $18 million loan to close the current-year gap.

The district has also turned to outside help to understand how the numbers deteriorated so quickly. It hired IMG, a forensic auditing firm, for an independent review, retained John Belmonte, a school business official with more than 30 years of experience, and asked Cullen & Danowski to finish the 2024-25 audited financial statements as soon as possible. Belmonte later said expenditures exceeded revenue by $16.2 million in 2024-25 and that reserves were used to cover the shortfall, reducing about $31 million in reserves to roughly $15.3 million.

South Country’s repeated budget presentations in 2026, including meetings on Jan. 21, Feb. 4, Feb. 25, March 11, March 25, April 15, April 20 and April 22, show how often the district has had to revise its recovery plan. With officials warning the district was days away from running out of money to pay staff and keep schools open, the resignation marks another chapter in a trust crisis that now reaches from the boardroom to the classroom.