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District previews 2026 budget, warns of circuit‑breaker losses and uncertainty in assessed valuation
Summary
District finance staff presented a preliminary 2026 budget overview. They estimated a $62 million education fund, highlighted a merged curricular materials allocation, warned of rising circuit‑breaker losses tied to recent state legislation, and said final property assessed valuation (AV) from Allen County is pending.
The SACS School Board received a preliminary overview of the 2026 budget that staff characterized as a conservative, maximum‑level proposal pending county assessed valuation. “The purpose for why we're here tonight is to discuss the start of the 3 phases for our budget for 2026,” a district finance presenter said.
The presenter said the district is estimating roughly $62,000,000 for the education fund in fiscal 2026, noting that a prior separate curricular materials fund has been merged into the education fund. He explained the district recorded curricular materials cash of roughly 2,800,000 that was spent in part on curriculum materials (about 2,200,000), leaving a residual cash balance embedded in the education fund.
On the property tax side, staff said final assessed valuation (AV) from Allen County had not yet been released and that the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) will review the adopted budget after the board acts. “After it's adopted, the DLGF, which is the Department of Local Government Finance, will get our budget,” the presenter said, describing a timeline that includes a possible DLGF response in December and a 10‑day window for district adjustments.
Staff warned the board about projected increases in circuit‑breaker losses under recent state actions and local calculations conducted with county analysts. The presenter summarized estimates the county provided: “In '24 calendar year, we had an estimated circuit breaker of 863. For '25, that grew to 1.9. And for estimated '26, that's 4.4.” He added that referenda and debt service are treated differently from operations in the circuit‑breaker calculation and that the operations fund is the most exposed.
Board members asked clarifying questions. In response, staff said they are modeling AV scenarios with consultants (Stifel and Policy Analytics), projecting a conservative AV growth figure of about 1.79% while acknowledging some counties are seeing much larger growth. Staff said the district will post required budget materials to the DLGF website and hold a public hearing on the budget at the next board meeting with final adoption planned for Oct. 7.
No final appropriations or tax levies were adopted at the meeting; staff presented the budget as a framework and said it will be adjusted when AV and further policy guidance arrive.
