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Board hears March financial report and preliminary 2025–26 budget briefing
Summary
District finance staff presented March financial highlights, fund balance trends and interfund loans; staff also outlined the timeline and assumptions for the 2025–26 budget, including tentative legislative impacts and enrollment projections.
The Arlington School District’s executive director of finance presented the district’s March financial highlights and an initial briefing on 2025–26 budget development at the board meeting.
Finance staff reported that enrollment is approximately 71 students higher than budgeted for the current year and that the district expects to end fiscal 2024‑25 with a fund balance above $2 million. The presentation noted compliance with required staff ratios for early grades and that the district qualified for $84,000 in transportation safety‑net funding to offset high special‑needs transportation costs.
Trustees were given a chart of fund‑balance trends showing typical seasonal highs in October and April when levy collections arrive and lows during summer months. Staff said the district used interfund loans authorized under board resolution 24‑13 to cover cash‑flow needs in late 2024 and early 2025, totaling about $1.5 million cumulatively; the district repaid $347,650 of those loans in March and reported it did not need loans in April.
Board members pressed staff on the loan interest calculation and repayment timing. Finance staff said interest is calculated using the county’s stated investment rate and accrues daily; interest is paid back to the capital projects fund when loans are repaid. The finance director said the district expects to clear interfund borrowing in April and still plans to request summer cash‑flow loans as needed to cover June when tax and apportionment timing reduces cash on hand.
On budget development, staff described the public schedule: a draft Form F‑195 budget must be posted by July 10, a draft returned to the board July 14, a public hearing and proposed adoption on August 11, and final adoption no later than Aug. 31. Staff outlined preliminary legislative assumptions used in early estimates: a 2.5% implicit price deflator, a restructured special‑education funding tier, and an approximately $35 increase per student in the materials and supplies allocation; staff noted final amounts will depend on OSPI programming of legislative outcomes.
Using current assumptions and board‑adopted enrollment figures for 2025‑26, staff said early estimates show revenues very nearly covering expenditures with a narrow margin (about $74,000) and modest fund‑balance growth projected. The finance director warned those figures are preliminary and subject to change when retirement rate assumptions, final OSPI allocations and other factors are finalized.
Board members asked about the multi‑year trend showing fund balance declines in prior years and staff explained that planned spend‑downs following the pandemic, the end of temporary state funding and past legislative adjustments contributed to the decreases. The finance director said district actions since 2023‑24 are designed to realign expenditures with revenues and rebuild reserves over multiple years.
No formal budget votes were taken; staff will return with updated estimates when OSPI provides final fiscal tools and legislative detail.
