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Sand Springs board adopts $46.5M general fund budget for 2025–26; COVID federal funds end affects revenue mix
Summary
The board approved the fiscal 2025–26 budget after a public hearing. The budget reflects a slight rise in total revenue despite the end of COVID-era federal infusions, carries forward planned expenditures, and flags capital items including a delayed gym floor project at the Methodist property acquisition.
Sand Springs Public Schools’ Board of Education adopted the district’s fiscal year 2025–26 budget June 2 after a public hearing. The board recorded an all-aye vote to approve the original budget.
Chief Financial Officer Cassie briefed the board on key assumptions driving the general fund and other funds. She said general-fund total expenditures were projected “around $46.5 million” and noted a small projected uptick in total all-sources revenue even as one-time federal COVID-era funds—about $1.9 million in the prior year—drop out of the base.
Cassie told the board state aid and enrollment remain the largest state revenue source and that the district is projecting a modest dip in state funding tied to enrollment. Local ad valorem property-tax revenue is projected to show a small increase—Cassie and board members noted roughly a $100,000 uptick in local receipts in the projection tied to steady assessed-value growth (the district typically models about 3% net assessed-value growth in Sand Springs).
The budget narrative the CFO presented also noted carryover assumptions, a planned reduction in fund balance tied to planned 5% stipends and other one-time uses, and that federal reimbursements were “an anomaly” the last two years because of E-rate and COVID-related receipts. Cassie said exact state revenue will be updated once official counts from the Oklahoma State Department of Education arrive and the board will make formal revisions in September and later in the winter as required.
On capital items, the building fund presentation highlighted the district’s recent Methodist property land acquisition recorded in the second-revised numbers and noted that planned work on the gym will be delayed to allow for a higher-quality collegiate floor rather than a rushed installation. The business office cautioned that building-improvement estimates are intentionally conservative because “you don’t know until you get started with construction.”
The board also discussed child nutrition program changes tied to the Community Eligibility Provision: student meal revenues were added back into the projection after a period of universal free lunch; the CFO said the prior-year CEP funding level was not sustainable at previous rates and the prior federal one-time funds had masked recurring revenue needs.
Board members asked about enrollment and residential construction in Angus and Limestone; the CFO said the district models historic assessed-value growth and is planning for potential rooftop-driven enrollment increases while noting past expectations for rapid growth had not always materialized. The budget adoption included the required public hearing; no members of the public addressed the hearing when the board asked for comment.
Board members approved the original budget and will consider the required revisions when state numbers are finalized.
