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Cannon Falls board approves preliminary FY26 budget after $800,000 in cuts
Summary
The board approved a preliminary FY26 budget described as mostly balanced after roughly $800,000 in reductions, delayed bus purchases, and administrative restructuring; the district expects modest revenue increases but flagged possible state funding uncertainties and an anticipated Minnesota FMLA employer cost increase.
The Cannon Falls School Board approved the district’s preliminary fiscal year 2026 budget after trustees and staff walked the board through spending reductions and revenue assumptions intended to produce a balanced plan.
Business manager Josh (surname not specified in the record) told trustees the board-adopted cuts originally totaled about $531,000; subsequent decisions — postponing a bus purchase (about $145,000) and additional administrative restructuring (about $90,000) — brought the total to just under $800,000 in reductions. He said the result is a budget that is “more or less balanced” with approximately $15.5 million in projected revenues and expenditures.
Josh explained some of the pressure points: state special education and compensatory revenue projections showed reductions in preliminary figures, the district is budgeting for a large one‑time reading curriculum purchase (roughly $150,000), and property insurance costs have risen substantially in recent years. He also noted the district will carry a cash-flow risk for certain grant-funded expansions (for example, an A DPSIS/ADHSIS expansion) because initial spending occurs before reimbursement.
Board members discussed how the budget assumptions would affect class sizes and services. Josh said the budget includes settled contracts and estimates for an unsettled teachers’ contract and that the district had included a partial-year cost for a proposed Minnesota FMLA payroll expansion (estimated to add roughly $25,000–$30,000 in FY26 and about $48,000–$50,000 when annualized).
The board voted to approve the preliminary budget so staff can proceed with June deadlines and continue to refine numbers as the state session concludes and final revenue figures become available.
