District finance staff reviewed Fund 80 program activity and ending balances and recommended using existing Fund 80 fund balances to reduce the 2025‑26 levy. Fund 80 supports community programs including the Parenting Place, school resource officers (SROs), community open gym, middle school co‑curriculars, the WIN before/after‑school program, and community education classes.
Miss Hauser told the board Fund 80 activities are outside state aid and supported by fee for service, participation fees and the local levy. She listed current allocations: Parenting Place ($20,000 historically), school resource officers (SRO) — previously shown as $120,000 in slides but later adjusted to $100,000 in the financial overview — community open gym (initially budgeted at roughly $50,000 but actual costs were about half), middle school co‑curriculars (about $120,000), and WIN (a before/after/summer care program; FY24 levy previously shown as $610,000).
Administration presented three levy options: (1) levy enough to cover projected costs (no use of fund balance), (2) use Fund 80 balances to reduce the levy (example estimate reduced the levy from a prior $920,000 to about $760,000), and (3) use balances and reallocate a $40,000 surplus in community open gym to further reduce the levy. Hauser said the levy mill‑rate impacts for the options were roughly 46¢, 39¢ and 37¢ respectively.
Board members debated whether reallocation of the $40,000 should be made administratively or left for community review at the annual meeting. Several board members urged transparency and said the annual meeting should be given an opportunity to weigh in because the community originally approved the open gym allocation; others said presenting a clear recommended column at the annual meeting would suffice and the board retains final authority when it certifies the levy in October.
Board members also asked staff to explore a potential partnership with the county or nonprofit to fund a social worker and discussed how Fund 80 choices might affect a possible April referendum. Miss Hauser said DPI guidance previously determined some programs (for example WIN) are not eligible for Fund 10/state aid because they are not part of the school day and therefore must be fee‑for‑service or levy‑funded.
By consensus, the board directed staff to present the far‑right column (the estimate showing a 37¢ mill‑rate impact) in the annual meeting materials and to disclose the proposed use of fund balance to the public; no binding levy certification was made at the meeting and the ultimate levy decision remains with the board at its October meeting.