Washington Elementary board adopts $168 million operations budget, approves adoption on July 15 deadline

The Washington Elementary School District Governing Board on July 10 approved the district's adopted expenditure budget for the 2025-26 school year, following a public hearing and a detailed presentation from district finance staff.

The adopted budget includes a maintenance and operations (M&O) budget just above $168,000,000, an unrestricted capital/district additional assistance fund of about $33,000,000, and combined federal and state projects near $61,500,000, district staff said. The board voted in favor of the motion during the meeting; no opposition was recorded.

At the start of the public hearing, district budget presenter Mr. O'Brien said, "The budget hasn't changed from the proposed to the adopted," explaining that state statute limits increases between the two documents and that the state's adopted budget was incorporated into the district's projections. He also walked the board through carryforward and encumbrance calculations and noted the district's projected balance-carryforward for M&O was just over $18,000,000. "Please remember that when we were projected this, we still had a few payrolls to go to clear out the year," O'Brien told the board, adding that vendors may submit invoices through Aug. 29 that could change the figure slightly.

Board members pressed for detail on how the state-provided budget workbook rolls up item-level tabs into the summary PDF the public sees. Board member Bill Adams said the summary form can show misleading lines driven by formula errors in the state workbook, and O'Brien acknowledged a formula issue that created a spurious 666% change in one detail line. O'Brien said the auditor general is aware of that line and that a revised document should correct the discrepancy.

The board asked for clarity about what the district is asking taxpayers to approve. O'Brien showed the tax-calculation worksheet used to compute the local "adjacent ways" levy: the budget projects $2,200,000 for adjacent ways but, because of prior-year balances, the amount to be raised from taxes is $520,000. "That is what we will be taxing," O'Brien said, adding that the worksheets will be posted after the board of supervisors approves the rate.

Board members also requested access to more of the underlying workbook tabs and related documents. O'Brien said he had uploaded the additional forms to the board's agenda packet and that he tracks encumbrances historically to make the carryforward projection. He told the board his office typically spends about 90% of encumbrances and that unrestricted capital encumbrances can number in the hundreds of outstanding invoices.

After discussion the board voted to approve the adopted expenditure budget for fiscal year 2025-26. The board also approved routine procedural items earlier in the meeting including minutes and a consent agenda.

Ending: The budget must be formally adopted by July 15 under state statute; staff said the documents and tax worksheets will be posted online after necessary county approvals and that the district will continue to publish updated budget material and a revised workbook if the state forms are corrected.