The Batavia Public Schools Board of Education adopted the fiscal year 2026 budget and approved a permanent transfer of district operating funds to the Capital Projects Fund to support the district's Warm'Safe'Dry facilities program.

Treasurer Tony presented the budget numbers and staff recommendations. "Total funds are, the 132,200,000.0 in revenue over $142,600,000 in expenditures," Tony said, noting the larger total includes on-behalf pension payments the state makes for teachers' pensions. The district's operating (day-to-day) funds total roughly $103.2 million in revenue against $98.4 million in operating expenditures; administrators said the district planned to transfer about $14 million from operating funds into capital projects for the coming year.

Why it matters: The transfers fund major building improvements in the district's multi-year Warm'Safe'Dry plan without adding new long-term debt. Administrators said the district will retire roughly $4 million in outstanding bonds this fiscal year, which will lower the school portion of the tax rate over the next two years, but that spending fund balance to pay for capital work reduces the district's cash-on-hand metric and will affect the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) financial profile score.

Key budget details presented:
- Total funds: approximately $132.2 million in revenue and $142.6 million in expenditures; the higher expenditure number includes about $24.5 million in state on-behalf pension payments that do not flow through district coffers.
- Operating funds (education + operations & maintenance): roughly $103.2 million revenue, $98.4 million expenditures; staff proposed transfers totaling $14 million to capital projects, producing an anticipated operating fund drawdown for FY2026.
- Permanent transfers approved by the board: $10,000,000 from the Education Fund and $4,048,000 from the Operations & Maintenance Fund to the Capital Projects Fund.
- Fund balance and cash-on-hand: Administrators said the transfers would lower fund balance but do not create a structural operating deficit; staff emphasized the need to preserve cash to avoid the cash-flow issues the district faced in earlier years.
- Debt: Staff reported the district will retire outstanding bonds this fiscal year (about $4 million), improving the debt portion of the ISBE financial profile but lowering the days-cash metric because of the planned capital transfers. Tony said the ISBE financial profile will likely drop from a perfect 4.0 to 3.9 in the near term because of that change in fund balance.

Board action: Motion to adopt the FY2026 budget was made by (Danielle) and seconded by Kristen; roll-call vote recorded all board members voting yes and the motion passed. The board then voted to adopt the resolution effecting the permanent fund transfers to the Capital Projects Fund. Vote counts recorded in the meeting transcript showed unanimous approval for both the budget adoption and the fund-transfer resolution.

Next steps and outlook: Staff said they will complete the formal levy process in November and begin preparing the FY2027 budget cycle immediately. Administrators cautioned that construction inflation and state categorical funding uncertainty (special education and transportation reimbursements) could affect future plans and said the district will re-evaluate the Warm'Safe'Dry timeline annually. Staff also said they will post interactive budget information online this fall to increase public transparency.

Board members asked about enrollment trends and staffing levels during the discussion; staff responded that enrollment has declined about 7% from peak years but expected relative stability in the near term and that class-size averages in K-8 core classes remain historically low (about 23 students per class).