Staff presented the school corporation's first reading of the proposed 2026 budget and walked board members through updated slides showing increases to advertised funds and debt-service estimates.

A staff member said, “the debt service went up $428,001.84 and the operations went up 3.5 from an advertised standpoint,” and noted the debt-service figures include anticipated effects of the 2025 bond and “Senate Bill 1.” The presenter said figures from Baker Tilly were incorporated to update the debt-service projection and that the first budget shown to the board had an advertised rate of 1.24, which was later presented as 1.22; the presenter said staff now believe the rate should come in at 1.21.

The presentation covered advertised versus actual rate estimates, bus and capital project numbers (which staff said had no changes between versions two and three), and a summary slide reconciling the updates. Staff described the materials as a first reading and invited questions; no formal adoption vote occurred during the meeting.

Board members were told to contact Nikki for follow-up questions about specific slides or assumptions.

The board did not take action to adopt the budget at this meeting; staff presented the materials for review as part of the scheduled first reading.