(a) teachers' salaries, including the salaries of all members of the teaching and supervising staff;

(b) items of expense specifically authorized by statute to be incurred by the board of education, including, but not limited to, expenditures for transportation to and from regular school programs included as ordinary contingent expenses in subdivision twelve of section twenty-five hundred three of this chapter, expenditures for textbooks, required services for non-public school students, school health services, special education services, kindergarten and nursery school programs, and the district's share of the administrative costs and costs of services provided by a board of cooperative educational services;

(c) items of expense for legal obligations of the district, including, but not limited to, contractual obligations, debt service, court orders or judgments, orders of administrative bodies or officers, and standards and requirements of the board of regents and the commissioner that have the force and effect of law;

(d) the purchase of library books and other instructional materials associated with a library;

(e) items of expense necessary to maintain the educational programs of the district, preserve the property of the district or protect the health and safety of students and staff, including, but not limited to, support services, pupil personnel services, the necessary salaries for the necessary number of non-teaching employees, necessary legal expenses, water and utility charges, instructional supplies for teachers' use, emergency repairs, temporary rental of essential classroom facilities, and expenditures necessary to advise school district voters concerning school matters; and

(f) expenses incurred for interschool athletics, field trips and other extracurricular activities; and

(g) any other item of expense determined by the commissioner to be an ordinary contingent expense in any school district. 6. The commissioner shall determine appeals raising questions as to what items of expenditure are ordinary contingent expenses pursuant to subdivision five of this section in accordance with section two thousand twenty-four and three hundred ten of this chapter. 7. Each year, the board of education shall prepare a school district report card, pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, and shall make it publicly available by transmitting it to local newspapers of general circulation, appending it to copies of the proposed budget made publicly available as required by law, making it available for distribution at the annual meeting, and otherwise disseminating it as required by the commissioner. Such report card shall include measures of the academic performance of the school district, on a school by school basis, and measures of the fiscal performance of the district, as prescribed by the commissioner. Pursuant to regulations of the commissioner, the report card shall also compare these measures to statewide averages for all public schools, and statewide averages for public schools of comparable wealth and need, developed by the commissioner. Such report card shall include, at a minimum, any information on the school district regarding pupil performance and expenditure per pupil required to be included in the annual report by the regents to the governor and the legislature pursuant to section two hundred fifteen-a of this chapter; and any other information required by the commissioner. School districts (i) identified as having fifteen percent or more of their students in special education, or (ii) which have fifty percent or more of their students with disabilities in special education programs or services sixty percent or more of the school day in a general education building, or (iii) which have eight percent or more of their students with disabilities in special education programs in public or private separate educational settings shall indicate on their school district report card their respective percentages as defined in this paragraph and paragraphs (i) and (ii) of this subdivision as compared to the statewide average.