Board reviews revised FY26 tentative budget; no adoption vote tonight

District finance staff presented a revised FY26 tentative budget to the Round Lake Area Board of Education on Sept. 8 for public display, describing changes since the prior iteration and explaining that no formal adoption was required at this meeting. Staff said overall revenues decreased by about $247,000 from the previous draft and total expenditures were reduced by about $1.86 million. The presenter told the board the largest single expenditure reduction was tied to the district's labor agreement changes: the district's association agreed to take a smaller salary increase than originally budgeted, reducing personnel costs for FY26; the presenter said the district has committed to repaying those deferred amounts in future years if surpluses appear. Other changes included reclassifications within revenue lines, movement of certain corporate property tax receipts into the site and construction fund to cover higher-than-expected capital project bids, paused non-grant professional development, limits on overtime, a 10% reduction to discretionary supply budgets and elimination of specific vacant positions. Staff explained that grant budgets are recorded so that related revenues track budgeted expenditures and therefore do not change the overall operating deficit. The presenter said the revised draft reduces the projected operating deficit from about $5.4 million in the earlier version to about $2.9 million. Debt-service levy and bond payments were described as largely fixed by existing payment schedules; staff noted a property tax relief grant that appeared in FY24-25 is not budgeted in FY26. Board members asked questions about line-item categories (for example, purchased services), the timing of formal action and monitoring. Staff reiterated the document is a work in progress and will be refined using payroll data after Sept. 15; staff said adoption will occur at a future meeting (the presenter referenced a target of the Sept. 30 board meeting for adoption). No vote on the FY26 budget occurred at the Sept. 8 meeting. Staff said the budget will be posted for public inspection while numbers continue to be refined.