Natrona County School District adopts $428 million FY2026 budget

The Natrona County School District Board of Trustees unanimously adopted the fiscal year 2026 combined appropriation budget totaling $428,021,499 during a budget hearing and regular meeting.

The budget vote follows a presentation by Chief Financial Officer Matt Flett, who said the combined appropriation includes a $275,435,559 general fund and additional appropriations for special revenue, capital projects, food service, student activities and custodial pass-through funds.

The budget documents show the general fund remains the district’s primary operating fund. Flett described the FY26 general fund as “fiscally conservative, structurally balanced,” with ongoing revenue matched to ongoing expenditures and one-time funds reserved for one-time costs. The largest ongoing revenue increase is an external cost adjustment within the Wyoming School Foundation Block Grant that the district estimates will provide about $6.7 million in new ongoing revenue, while declining enrollment reduced block-grant funding by about $3.5 million.

Trustees approved a series of pay and benefit changes included in the proposal: an increase in starting teacher salary from $52,000 to $56,200, a $2,100 increase for school psychologists and administrators, a $1.05 hourly increase for classified staff (about $2,184 annually for 260-day classified employees), and a $13-per-day increase for substitute teachers. The proposal also reduces general fund full-time equivalents by about 38 FTEs and reduces salary/benefits by roughly $3.5 million to align staffing with projected enrollment.

One-time allocations in the FY26 plan include a $7.3 million compensation package of retention bonuses and enhanced 457(b) contributions, $10 million to the district’s special facilities and equipment (depreciation) reserve, a $2.5 million one-time transfer to a newly created student technology replacement fund, $5.8 million to a board-priority contingency, and a $2.5 million increase to the board reserve (raising it to $18,300,000). The district also included $1,250,000 one-time for out-of-district tuition placements and $300,000 to study property-liability pricing tied to changes in state law.

Other fund appropriations listed in the budget packet include a FY26 major maintenance budget of approximately $21,200,000 (supported by about $15.5 million in estimated state grant revenue), a capital projects appropriation of $82,600,000, a food service appropriation of $7,041,129, a student activity budget of $4,400,000, and a custodial/pass-through fund budget of $5,250,000. The record shows the district requested mill levies totaling 46.5 mills countywide; trustees noted the board controls only a small portion of that total.

Board members who spoke during the meeting thanked staff for the budget work and voiced concerns about some policy choices embedded in the package. Trustee Hopkins pressed the district on the pace and scale of technology investment for young learners and urged consideration of local vendor sourcing. Other trustees emphasized fiscal conservatism, maintaining compensation to support recruitment and retention, and continued monitoring of enrollment and grant uncertainties.

Motion and vote details: the board moved to adopt the FY26 budget as presented and recorded a unanimous vote to approve the combined appropriation. Trustees noted that, if the board had not acted, county commissioners would have adopted a budget for the district.

The district’s CFO concluded the presentation and remained available for questions; trustees adopted the budget at the same meeting and moved on to other agenda items.