The Oak Ridge Board of Education approved the district’s FY 2025–26 general purpose fund budget on first reading at a special meeting, adopting a $83,188,805 spending plan that the board said represents an 8.12% increase over the current year.

Board Chair Miss McClain opened a line-by-line review of the budget and asked board members to hold questions until each section was completed. After reviewing detailed line items across instruction, special education, operations and other categories, the board held a public hearing that produced no speakers and then voted to approve the budget on first reading. Board member Dr. Hartman moved approval; Ms. Craven seconded, and the motion passed unanimously, the board recorded.

Why it matters: the budget sets classroom staffing and services for the coming year and funds several district priorities highlighted during the review, including technology, special education, career and technical programs and contingency for enrollment fluctuations.

Key allocations and changes presented during the review included: regular instruction, $38,338,532 (up 20.96%); special education, $6,529,404 (up 9.36%); career and technical education, $2,571,200 (up 7.1%); technology services, $3,270,169 (up 8.57%); and a $1,100,000 instructional contingency (up 48.47%). The total general-purpose fund expenditures for the proposed FY 2025–26 budget were announced as $83,188,805 (up 8.12%).

Administrators noted several program-specific changes: the adult education budget dropped to zero because the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) of Knoxville has taken over adult education grant administration and services; the district’s transfer to support the Family Resource Center was listed as $136,698 (up 8.48%); and regular capital outlay was shown at $1,195,205 (a decrease of 67.4%) while individual capital projects such as elevator repairs, gym floor resurfacing and performing-arts lighting upgrades were itemized.

Finance and operations staff explained items that drew board questions. Jennifer Van Dyke, district staff, said the trustees commission is a fee charged by the county trustee for collecting and disbursing property tax revenue and that the commission rates are set by statute and intergovernmental agreements. Van Dyke also described the district’s use of state funding under Tennessee’s TISA (Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement), saying that some previously separate grants were folded into the district’s base funding and that most support for the Family Resource Center is supplemented by donations.

Board members and district leaders discussed implementation costs tied to a one-time rollout of expanded criminal-background screening managed through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and a related FBI component; administrators characterized the larger human-resources cost in FY 2025–26 as primarily a one-year implementation expense that should decline in subsequent years.

No members of the public spoke during the allotted three-minute public-comment period on the budget. After the vote, Chair Miss McClain reminded attendees that the district’s graduation celebration is free and open to seniors and that the board will hold a second reading of the budget at its regular meeting scheduled one week later at 5:00 p.m.

Actions recorded in the meeting included approval of the meeting agenda (motion by Miss Webb, second by Miss Craven; passed unanimously) and approval of the FY 2025–26 budget on first reading (motion by Dr. Hartman, second by Ms. Craven; passed unanimously).