Lebanon board approves 2025-26 budget, janitorial contract and multiple policy items
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Summary
The Lebanon School Board approved the 2025-26 general and federal budgets, salary schedules with a 2% raise, a district-funded bonus program for staff, an ABM janitorial services contract, and several routine compliance items during its June meeting.
The Lebanon School Board on June (date not specified) approved the district's balanced 2025-26 general fund budget and proposed salary schedules, accepted federal program budgets, approved a new janitorial services contract with ABM, and signed off on several compliance and personnel items.
Board members voted to adopt the proposed 2025-26 budget after hearing a presentation on revenues and expenditures. District staff said the budget includes nine additional positions and a 2% across-the-board raise for certified staff and a 2% increase for classified staff steps; it also proposes a $1,000 bonus for all employees funded from state-provided monies and supplemented by the board so that staff not covered by the state bonus would also receive payments. The district will absorb a 5% increase in health-insurance costs for next year; a speaker on the record said the district's employer premium share was 30%.
The budget documents in the board packet include an executive summary, department-level expenditure pages (maintenance, operations, technology, preschool, community service, transportation) and the district's estimated general purpose fund balance, which staff estimated at about $18'$19 million following the audit. Starting teacher pay for new hires with a bachelor's degree was listed as $54,125 in the packet.
Board members also approved the district's federal budgets for 2025-26 (identified in the meeting as "ESFGA" and IDEA), and voted to adopt 13 budget amendments for 2024-25 that staff said reflect finalized receivables and payables, summer-school revenues, and line-item adjustments; staff noted local option sales tax receipts have been running above estimates and that some amendments will reflect that.
On contracts, the board approved the previously discussed ABM janitorial services contract after staff and ABM representatives described actions taken since the prior meeting. Jordan Nederle, the board attorney, said district staff had walked facilities with ABM and that ABM has addressed prior performance and communication concerns. An ABM representative described a QR-code reporting system to let teachers, parents or staff submit cleaning complaints directly to ABM and to managers assigned to each building; ABM said it would provide monthly survey reports to district staff and administrators and could retrain or reassign custodial employees if repeated complaints appear.
Other approved items included: the district's Local Agriculture Products Compliance Plan for 2025 as submitted by Food Services; the appointment of Brenda Blevins as principal at Sam Houston Elementary for authorization to access school accounts; and the district's artificial-intelligence policy compliance report required under last year's AI policy, which staff said documents an oversight process, training elements and approval steps for any AI tool the district adopts.
Superintendent Hutto told the board the district projects enrollment of about 4,855 students next year (closing the year at roughly 4,700) and noted an increase in the metric reported as "ADA," which staff stated is 16.6% (as reported in the meeting). He said consecutive years of growth could make the district eligible for infrastructure funding and that staff would provide details when final awards are known. On a separate legal matter, the board attorney summarized the status of a private act implementation: legislative services had revised language in a way staff and outside counsel say was incorrect for special school districts; district counsel and the state election official have invited the district to file a declaratory-judgment action and an agreed order to have the courts correct the language before the next election cycle.
Summer school staff reported about 489 enrollments in the district's four-week program, described classroom activities and behavioral supports, and said posttesting will determine whether students meet growth criteria that could affect required tutoring next year. The board also set tentative future meeting dates and adjourned.
Votes at a glance - Approve agenda: approved (voice vote). - Approve minutes (May 12): approved (voice vote). - Approve 2025-26 general fund budget and proposed salary schedules (includes 2% raises and nine additional positions; $1,000 bonus proposal funded by state funds and board supplementation): approved (voice vote). - Approve federal budgets for 2025-26 (ESFGA and IDEA): approved (voice vote). - Approve 2024-25 budget amendments (13 amendments): approved (voice vote). - Approve ABM janitorial services contract: approved (voice vote). - Approve Local Agriculture Products Compliance Plan 2025: approved (voice vote). - Approve leadership change (Brenda Blevins, principal, Sam Houston Elementary): approved (voice vote). - Approve AI policy compliance report: approved (voice vote).
The meeting included routine board business and informational reports; no litigation decisions were taken in open session and no executive session was recorded in the transcript provided.