District presents FY26 tentative budget showing projected fund balances and targeted staffing increases

The school district presented its tentative fiscal year 2026 budget to the board and public, outlining revenue projections, planned expenditures, capital priorities and projected fund balances for the 12 months beginning July 1, 2025. District staff said the Education Fund shows a timing-driven surplus this year while several operating funds are projected to run deficits without additional actions.

The budget presentation explained why the district is projecting an overall positive fund balance at year-end but also identified three funds with planned deficit spending: the Operations & Maintenance fund, the Transportation fund and the Tort fund. Staff attributed some timing differences to property tax receipts arriving earlier than expected and said those receipts help offset shortfalls this fiscal year.

District presenter Dana summarized major revenue assumptions and expenditure drivers. Local property taxes remain the largest revenue source; evidence-based state funding stayed in the same tier but produced a smaller payment than the prior year. Staff said they budgeted about $16.0 million from state evidence-based funding and projected roughly $64.8 million from local property taxes. Key expenditure pressures include rising special-education tuition, growing bus lease costs and salary-and-benefit increases tied to contracts and staffing additions.

Capital-project priorities identified in the tentative budget include the Howard B. Thomas roof project, Country Trails mobile classrooms and a potential high-school track project. The presentation noted that capital-project spending is constrained by declining impact-fee receipts; staff said impact fees were lower this year than in prior years and adjusted the capital budget accordingly.

Board members asked clarifying questions about timing and the meaning of projected fund balances. Dana confirmed the cash-accounting timing of property-tax receipts — tax money received in advance for the next school year is included in the projected balances — and cautioned that those figures are not surplus discretionary dollars but are earmarked for future obligations. The presentation materials that staff referenced are on public display for the 30-day tentative-budget review period.

The presentation also highlighted enrollment-driven staffing needs across elementary, middle and high schools. Staff said the budget includes additional full-time equivalents (FTEs) but did not allocate those FTEs by specific positions, buildings or programs in the tentative document; board members asked for more detail on whether the new FTEs would be teachers, counselors, support staff or administrators and in which schools they would be assigned.

The district encouraged board members and the public to review the detailed line-item working budget that is posted with the tentative figures; staff said that working budget shows prior-year actuals, the tentative FY26 numbers and percent changes by line item to aid review.

Ending: District staff said they will present updated figures and further detail at the September meeting as required by law before the board votes on a final budget.