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Racine Unified presents FY26 interim budget; board to vote at June business meeting
Summary
District staff presented an interim FY26 budget that relies on referendum funds, assumes modest revenue-limit increases and contains a projected Fund 10 surplus; board members pressed staff on special education transfers, staffing reductions and long-term debt metrics.
Racine Unified School District staff presented the district’s fiscal year 2026 interim budget Wednesday and said the board will be asked to approve the interim plan at the June business meeting.
The interim budget incorporates $26,000,000 from the district’s 2025 referendum, assumes a $325 per-pupil revenue limit increase and sets special education reimbursement at 30 percent, said the staff presenter. The presentation projects a Fund 10 (general fund) surplus of $431,000 in the interim plan but shows increasing special education costs that will require transfers from the general fund.
The presentation noted board-approved assumptions built into the interim plan: a 2.95 percent wage increase across schedules, a 12 percent health insurance cost assumption, a 5.5 percent transportation increase and a 3 percent utilities increase. District staff also highlighted uncertainty about the future of federal Title funds beyond FY26.
"In the FY26 budget, one of the major pieces was the 2025 referendum, which supplied $26,000,000 of funding," the presenter said. "We did provide the board-approved 2.95 percent increases and set health insurance at a 12 percent increase." (Presenter: Staff member.)
Board members asked for clarifications about several items. Board member Stephen O'Connell asked about a slide showing a hypothetical long-term liabilities ratio reaching about 300 percent of revenue; staff said that line was a hypothetical illustration, not an expected immediate outcome. Board member Miss Fuller pressed on a sizeable projected drop in local investment income and a nearly 20 percent projected reduction in interdistrict (open-enrollment) revenue; staff said lower investment interest and lower projected open-enrollment counts explain much of those changes.
Several board members focused on special education funding: the presentation showed a special education service transfer currently at about $35,000,000 and projected to grow to about $38,000,000 next year. "With special ed, you really want to keep that number constant because there is something called MOE," the presenter explained, referring to maintenance-of-effort requirements, and added that higher state reimbursement rates would reduce the required transfer from Fund 10.
Board member Mister Koey asked for confirmation that the roughly $61,000,000 line for special instruction represents the teachers and educational assistants in that function; staff confirmed and said the district expects a transfer of about $38,200,000 from Fund 10 to balance special-education funding in FY26 under current reimbursement assumptions.
Staff also reported a net reduction of 57 full-time-equivalent positions loaded into the interim personnel budget, reflecting school closures and staffing reviews. The presentation included a five-year forecast showing small but manageable future deficits tied largely to projected health insurance increases.
No formal vote was taken at the work session; multiple participants noted the district will present the full interim budget book at the June business meeting and at a public budget hearing in September. The board’s decision to adopt the interim budget was described as planned for the June business meeting.
The district’s budget book and the fund-by-fund interim package will be released before the June business meeting for review.
