Business ops committee reviews preliminary 2025–26 budget; recommends committing funds to capital projects

The Central York School District Business Operations Committee on Feb. 19 received an initial presentation of the proposed 2025–26 budget, which includes a working 1.75% tax-rate increase and preliminary projections that show an ending fund balance near $11 million if current assumptions hold.

Budget staff framed the discussion as an early step in a multiweek process and said state and federal funding and enrollment projections remain uncertain. The presentation matters for residents because the committee’s planning assumptions affect the district’s tax rate, staffing, and capital reserves for building maintenance and equipment.

Presenters (identified in the meeting as Miss Martin and district finance staff) summarized the current-year outlook for fiscal 2024–25: the district now projects about a $3.2 million operating surplus for the year and an ending fund balance of roughly $11 million, aided in part by additional state funding and stronger-than-expected local revenue collections. Interest income for the current year was projected at about $1 million, and staff reported roughly $600,000 of extra real-estate tax receipts above budgeted projections.

For 2025–26, the draft budget presented shows a proposed 1.75% tax-rate increase that the staff said would produce a near-balanced budget with a small surplus (approximately $250,000 in the presented scenario). Under the staff’s sample figures, the average residential assessment (about $156,000) would see an annual tax increase of roughly $62 at the 1.75% rate. Staff warned that special-education costs, substitute and contracted services and open positions remain budget pressures; special-education and cyber-charter costs were specifically cited as drivers of rising professional-service expenditures.

Staff also reviewed an eight-year capital plan and recommended a transfer to capital reserves of roughly $1.7 million for 2025–26; they proposed formally committing $1.25 million of fund balance to capital projects and retaining an assigned fund balance of about $5.6 million. Committee members present indicated agreement and asked staff to take the proposed committed fund-balance actions to the full board for approval.

The presentation included a five-year projection that assumed relatively modest revenue increases but reflected future one-time curriculum costs (staff noted renewal payments for K–12 programs in later years) that would create budget pressure in 2027–28 and again in 2029–30 under the model used. Staff emphasized that the projection is an estimate and that kindergarten registration, special-education caseloads, state and federal budget actions and other items could change the out-year picture.

Next steps the presenter listed included refining the 2024–25 projections, updating assessed-value estimates when county values are finalized in March, continuing to review the capital plan and monitoring state and federal funding decisions. The committee did not finalize the 2025–26 budget at the meeting and will revisit figures before the June deadline for adopting a final budget.

Key figures presented: current-year projected surplus ~$3.2 million; projected ending fund balance ~$11 million; proposed 2025–26 tax-rate increase (working figure) 1.75%; staff-proposed committed fund-balance transfer for capital $1.25 million; capital reserve transfer request for 2025–26 approximated at $1.7 million; projected interest income for current year about $1 million; projected state revenue increase about $539,000 in 2025–26 (per staff model).