Kyrene CFO outlines FY2025–26 budget response to enrollment decline, rising utilities

Summary

Kyrene Elementary District finance staff told the board the district’s proposed 2025–26 operating budget is balanced on an ongoing basis but relies on $4.2 million in permanent expenditure reductions and $7.4 million in one-time spending; enrollment decline and rising utility costs are major drivers of changes.

Kyrene Elementary District Associate Superintendent and Chief Financial Officer Chris Herman told the governing board on June 10 that next year’s proposed operating plan balances ongoing general-fund revenues and expenditures while adjusting for declining enrollment and higher utility costs.

Herman said the district expects a net loss of 761 students for 2025–26 compared with the prior-year budget, a change he estimated will reduce state maintenance and operations (M&O) revenue by about $4,100,000. At the same time, Herman said the district is assuming the maximum state inflation funding (a 2% statutory inflation adjustment) of about $1,800,000 for the coming year.

Herman told the board those two headline items, combined with an expected $1.5 million increase in utilities, require the district to reduce recurring expenditures by $4,200,000 for 2025–26. He described $900,000 of those reductions in district-office budgets (including about $339,000 in lower personnel costs and…

Kyrene CFO outlines FY2025–26 budget response to enrollment decline, rising utilities

Summary

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