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Blaine County School District projects $1.4 million shortfall in preliminary 2025–26 budget
Summary
During an April 29 work session, trustees and staff reviewed a dynamic financial model that shows a projected $1.4 million general fund deficit for 2025–26. Staff cited enrollment declines, slower state funding growth, federal grant uncertainty and rising costs as drivers. The model is a working document and does not yet reflect a staffing change
Trustees and finance staff for Blaine County School District 61 reviewed a draft, dynamic financial model April 29 that currently projects a $1.4 million general fund shortfall for the 2025–26 fiscal year.
Trustee Stone, the board chair, opened the work session by asking staff to present the district’s “school finance basics.” Director Crowe (finance staff) and Trustee Turner walked trustees through the model, which staff described as a live forecasting tool that incorporates enrollment projections, average daily attendance, state and federal revenue formulas, and detailed expense accounts.
Director Crowe summarized revenue and expense structure: roughly 53% of general fund revenue comes from local property taxes, 44% from state sources and about 2.2% from federal funds; payroll and benefits account for about 83% of expenses. The presentation traced a longer-term shift in Idaho funding, noting a 2006 change that moved school funding toward state sales tax and the district’s continuing reliance on a fixed stabilization levy. Board members said those dynamics, combined with a 2018 turning point when stabilization levy value did not keep pace with inflation, have tightened district budgets.
Crowe told the board, “You can see that we are looking at 1,400,000.0 deficit currently,” and said the number is a working forecast. Staff cautioned the model does not yet include changes approved earlier in the meeting (a 1.8 FTE certified reduction) and will be updated as more information arrives, including results from upcoming negotiations with the teachers’ association.
Trustee Turner pressed on state-level decisions, saying in part, “In this trustee’s opinion, [the Legislature’s] action is active legislative malfeasance,” arguing recent state funding choices had not produced the increases district staff had modeled into budgets earlier in the year. Turner and other trustees described a mismatch between news items about targeted literacy funding and the net dollars the district will actually receive once support units and allocations are calculated.
Staff described key assumptions and risk factors in the forecast: a conservative 10% reduction scenario for federal grant funding (the presenter noted some public speculation of deeper cuts but chose the 10% scenario), lower projected transportation reimbursements tied to reported miles, rising utility and insurance costs, and a generally tighter interest-rate and returns outlook for investment earnings. Director Crowe and staff said the district has a practice of using reserves to smooth cash-flow timing differences and that the board has built a building-modernization fund (about $14 million in the account) that district leaders do not intend to treat as general-fund revenue.
The model also shows budgetary adjustments and policy choices staff have made or proposed: reduce the planned general-fund transfer to a bus-replacement fund to $100,000 (down from prior years’ transfers of $3.25–$3.5 million), continue to fund summer school using the supplemental levy now that ESSER funds have ended, and maintain transfers that subsidize child nutrition and career-technical academies. Staff noted the residential construction academy’s previous house sale offset part of program costs and that future sales could reduce general-fund transfers to that program.
Directors highlighted improvements in accounting and transparency after switching to new financial software: more granular account visibility, a detailed state apportionment worksheet, and closer tracking of where reimbursable state technology funds and federal grants are posted. The finance director said those controls have helped identify accounts that were previously miscoded and have increased the district’s ability to model scenarios.
No formal budget decisions were adopted at the session; staff and trustees described the forecast as a working document that will be updated and used to guide later decisions. Trustees asked staff to continue refining the forecast, incorporate the staffing action taken that evening, and return with revised projections and options before the board adopts a final budget.
