Worcester County Public Schools FY26 draft budget requests roughly $11 million in new funding; state aid and health insurance unknowns remain

Vince Tolbert, presenting for Worcester County Public Schools on Feb. 11, walked the Board of Education through the district's second FY26 budget work session and highlighted new requests and remaining uncertainties.

Tolbert told the board the draft now includes recently negotiated salary agreements. He said the budget documents list roughly $11 million in additional funding requests for FY26, composed of several larger line items: the negotiated salary package and related fixed charges ($5,744,439), restore prior year cuts ($1,940,759), a projected health-insurance increase (about $1,205,012), an iPad refresh ($550,000), an increase in the local share of teacher pension ($672,000), full summer and after-school programming ($303,039), and estimated bus-contractor increases ($280,000). Tolbert said the district had moved a one-time bus-software implementation cost of $42,098 into the nonrecurring column.

Tolbert also highlighted changes to retirement contributions: the district's retirement expense rose from $818,722 to $929,955 based on new state rates. He said the draft budget shows total anticipated expenditures of about $144,765,517 and carries a prior-year fund balance of $567,011 forward to keep the FY25 budget whole.

Tolbert warned two variables remain unknown and could change the draft: the governor's proposed changes to state funding formulas and the FY26 health-insurance rate. He said if the governor's proposed formula changes are enacted, the district could receive about $356,000 less in state aid than the current-formula estimate included in the draft; insurance final rates were not yet set and staff were using an 8% projection.

Tolbert explained the "means of effort" calculation (the state/local funding baseline) would require about $884,000 more in local funding next year if the county were to meet the maintenance-of-effort standard. He provided several visual breakdowns in the document: salaries and wages (with fixed charges) account for roughly 85.7% of the budget and instructional salaries plus fixed charges about 62.8%.

Board member Dr. Gaines flagged pending state legislation that could affect the draft: "Senate Bill 429 and House Bill 504 ... will have a significant impact on us in terms of what happens regarding the blueprint, and specifically funding," he said, explaining those bills would alter blueprint commitments — for example, pausing some components and freezing community school expansions for two years if enacted. Tolbert and staff said they will monitor legislative action and the health benefits committee's meeting before finalizing figures.

Tolbert said the budget book now includes updated salary scales reflecting the new agreement, a new page showing use of FY24 surplus funds, enrollment projections, cost-per-pupil comparisons by school, and detailed Q1 QuickBooks activity for each school. He answered board questions on several line items, including the proposed traveling registrar position to help with summer registration workloads (a rotating role visiting elementary schools during peak months).

Ending: Tolbert said staff will update the draft as state budget actions and final insurance rates are known; the board is scheduled to approve the full budget document for submission to the county on Feb. 18.