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Finance director briefs board on preliminary 2025–26 budget and a $2.4M transfer‑of‑service special‑education pressure
Summary
The district’s preliminary budget presented several tax‑levy scenarios and flagged transfer‑of‑service (TOS) claims tied to incoming students with IEPs. Staff said 242 students with IEPs transferred in this year, triggering 26 additional special‑education positions for next year and an estimated TOS revenue adjustment of about $2.4 million.
The district finance director briefed the board on June 9 on the proposed preliminary 2025–26 budget, mill‑rate scenarios and a sizable transfer‑of‑service (TOS) impact tied to incoming special‑education students.
Presenter Jason Norris (staff presenter) told trustees that federal and state aid assumptions remain uncertain while the state budget process was unresolved; the district is preparing several mill‑rate scenarios. If equalized property values rise by roughly 7% and state aid remains near current levels, the district’s projected mill rate would be in the neighborhood of 0.740–0.760 — a mid‑single‑digit percent change compared with prior years. If no additional state aid materializes and valuations stay flat, a considerably higher mill rate would be required; Norris presented four scenarios so trustees could see the sensitivities.
Norris highlighted transfer‑of‑service claims as a near‑term budget pressure. Under Wisconsin rules districts may request a revenue‑limit exemption when new services previously provided by another governmental entity are taken on systemically; in practice, inflows of students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) can trigger staffing increases that the DPI may already validate in a TOS claim. District staff said 242 students with IEPs moved into West Allis‑West Milwaukee during the 2024–25 year; using DPI caseload guidance the district identified a need for about 26 additional special‑education positions and estimated that TOS claims for those hires would increase the district revenue limit by roughly $2.4 million.
Norris said the district is operating a balanced preliminary budget under conservative state‑aid assumptions but that the special‑education inflow and resulting TOS claims could change staffing and levy calculations. He told the board the district will ask staff to return with final preliminary levy numbers at the June 23 board meeting and that the board will certify a levy later in the summer after required state deadlines.
Board members asked whether the district can plan ahead for persistent growth in students with complex needs; staff replied the TOS process is reactive — districts receive TOS adjustments after students trigger staff needs — and said alternative planning choices carry financial risk because the district would pay full cost of any pre‑hired positions until DPI certified a TOS addition.
