Birmingham Board adopts 2025–26 budget as trustees stress need for further adjustments after state funding remains unsettled

The Birmingham Board of Education voted to adopt the district’s 2025–26 General Appropriations Budget on June 30, approving a budget built on the Senate’s pending school-aid proposal and district assumptions about enrollment and local tax levies.

Kevin, the district business-services presenter, opened the statutory portion of the meeting by saying the presentation was intended “to help you understand how property taxes work in our community, and how they impact the per student foundation provided by the state,” and described the district’s use of the Senate budget as the working assumption because the state’s final school-aid bill had not been signed.

Kevin told trustees the district expects a modest enrollment decline—“a modest decline of blended student enrollment of 38.53 students, or approximately half a percent”—and described how local property taxes, state foundation aid and the district’s hold-harmless millage combine to determine per-pupil revenue. He reported the district’s estimated per-pupil totals for the current calculation: local collections of about $4,577 per student, a state portion of $5,431, plus a hold-harmless per-pupil amount of $3,755, for an estimated total of $13,763 per pupil under the district’s calculations.

Kevin described the district’s tax-roll filing form and noted technical adjustments: the district expects to levy the customary 18 mills for operating purposes and 3.8 mills for debt service; he said the district’s hold-harmless millage for the coming year would drop slightly from 4.8358 to 4.6383 per the state’s calculations.

On projected budget totals, staff estimated general-fund revenues of $146,071,486 and expenditures of $147,799,839, resulting in a planned use of fund balance of $1.7 million and an estimated year-end general-fund balance of roughly $14.8 million (about 10 percent of expenditures). Kevin told trustees the district had reduced expenditures by almost $4 million year over year—largely through an employee severance plan and position changes—but that state revenue shifts, elimination of one-time pass-throughs (including a 1-47-c-2 pass-through) and other changes produced an overall revenue decline.

Trustees said they would continue reviewing the budget after the state finalizes the school-aid bill. Trustee Hoechmer said she and other finance-committee members are working on additional steps “to go ahead and and get to where our strategic plan says we're going to be, which is a non‑deficit budget.” Dr. Roberson and finance-committee members said the district will use the first budget amendment once the state’s final budget is known and will revisit projections after the fall pupil-count data.

Trustee Colleen moved approval of Resolution 97, the 2025–26 General Appropriations Budget Act, and Trustee Laurie seconded. The Board adopted the budget by a 6–1 vote.

Trustees emphasized the vote was approval of the budget as proposed under current assumptions and not a final measure of future adjustments; several trustees reiterated the district’s intent to return with budget amendments after the state budget is finalized and after fall enrollment figures are certified.