District finance staff projects $1.6M special-education cost increase this year, proposes preliminary 2025–26 millage; board adopts preliminary budget

West Chester Area School District finance staff presented an updated budget forecast on April 22 that projects significantly higher special-education tuition costs for the current fiscal year and proposed a preliminary 2025–26 budget that the property finance committee approved for public posting.

Scully, presenting the forecast model and proposed budget, told the committee the district now projects roughly $1,000,000 more in special-education tuition for the 2024–25 year than previously budgeted and carried an additional $600,000 forward into the 2025–26 projection. "We are projecting it to be close to a million dollars over where we had anticipated being," Scully said, attributing the increase to additional placements (including several at the Vanguard program) and higher tuition rates for certain contracted placements.

Scully said the district offset part of the current-year special-education increase by reducing projected costs in two other line items (medical benefits and extra-duty pay), and she carried changes forward into the 2025–26 proposed budget. On the revenue side, the district is projecting higher current real-estate tax collections driven by assessment growth, increased transfer taxes, and higher investment earnings in 2024–25; those items together contributed to an improved projection for the current year.

For 2025–26, the administration proposed a total general-fund budget of about $334.0 million…