School board debates cuts and deferral of raises to address $4.1 million FY26 budget gap

The Washington County School Board spent the bulk of a special meeting debating how to close an almost $4.1 million gap in the proposed FY 2026 general-purpose budget after the district’s funding body declined to provide additional funds.

District staff told the board that the budget documents the board approved June 3 included using $2,000,000 of fund balance but still left a shortfall “just under $4,100,000.” The presenter said the last night’s funding hearing for all county government entities produced no additional funding for the schools, leaving the board to decide how to balance the FY 2026 budget.

Board members and staff traded proposals that emphasized minimizing classroom impact. Options discussed included preserving the annual step increases already built into the salary schedule (which staff said account for about $560,000 of the teacher-salary line) while deferring the additional $2,095-per-employee pay increases proposed to help reach a state-mandated $50,000 starting salary for teachers until next year. "If we don't make any progress this year, it will be doubled next year," a staff presenter said, warning that postponing changes risks larger costs later. Several board members said they preferred holding step increases and deferring the supplemental raises; others urged deeper cuts now to avoid using fund balance.

Staff outlined several line-item adjustments the board had approved in draft and recommended trimming: reducing an approved $181,000 increase to maintenance and repair by $35,000, lowering an $80,000 equipment-maintenance increase by $25,000, and trimming an originally proposed $254,574 increase in other maintenance supplies to about $197,000. The presenter said the higher amounts were based on 12 months of actual expenditures and multi-year trends; the reductions proposed were intended to preserve some flexibility for urgent building work while lowering planned spending.

Board members also discussed not filling eight certified positions and one district supervisor position (staff described those openings as resignations and unposted positions) to avoid immediate classroom disruptions; the board heard that three of those positions had already been identified in earlier budget conversations as possible reductions. One board member suggested keeping the vacant positions in the budget line so the district could hire quickly if circumstances changed.

Several members proposed eliminating or delaying non-salary items — athletic supplements, school leadership stipends, textbook purchases and certain contracted services — to save money. One board member specifically opposed removing school leadership stipends, saying those supplements recognize additional out-of-day duties and summer work by principals. The superintendent’s $10,000 potential annual bonus was included on a removal list and noted by the superintendent during the meeting.

District financial staff projected that when the books are closed for FY 2025 the district would use roughly $4.5 million to $4.9 million of fund balance, leaving a carryover estimate of about $2.0 million. Board members discussed a hybrid approach that would combine targeted cuts, use of fund balance, and holding some proposed raises until next year; one board member calculated that a blend of cuts could reduce additional fund-balance use by roughly $660,000 under quick estimates provided in the meeting.

At the end of the discussion a board member indicated readiness to make a motion that would implement many of the cuts discussed (removing certain proposed raises, keeping health insurance and utility-funded items, and removing the other listed increases), and the board recessed so staff could reduce that motion to a written form for a vote. The transcript records the motion text read aloud but does not record a final roll-call vote on that written motion; the board recessed for five minutes so staff could prepare the written motion for submission to the mayor by the end of the day.

Board members repeatedly emphasized the priority of minimizing impacts on classrooms. Several speakers expressed frustration with the funding body (the county commission) for not approving additional funds at the recent county budget hearing; one board member called the commission’s silence “a breach” of support. The board asked staff to prepare an adjusted budget reflecting the cuts discussed and to submit it to the mayor by midnight, per staff comments in the meeting.