Carlisle finance team outlines $4.09 million preliminary 202526#x2013;26 gap; charter and special-education costs cited as main drivers

The Carlisle Area School District finance committee received a comprehensive draft of the 202526#x2013;26 budget on April 3. Mike Statler, the districts director of business operations, told the board the administration is projecting draft revenues of $113,542,670 and draft expenditures of $117,636,000, leaving a preliminary gap of $4,093,445.

Key revenue drivers: Statler said roughly 66% of projected revenue will come from local sources. The administration is projecting a roughly $1.5 million increase in earned income tax (EIT) receipts for the coming fiscal year based on recent trends and collection rates. State funding in the draft does not yet include additional dollars from the governor's proposed budget; Statler presented scenarios showing the local impact if portions of the governor's proposal are enacted.

Major expense drivers: Statler and other administrators told the board the largest increases come from special-education tuition and outside placements, escalating charter-school tuition costs, projected salary and benefit increases and growing health-insurance costs (the administration used a 6% projection for health-benefit increases). The business office showed that special-education expenditures have grown in recent years and that special-education enrollment was 20.37% as of the latest count.

Charter and cyber costs: The presentation broke out charter-school costs into regular and special-education students. For regular charter students, the district projected a per-student cost of $14,211.42; for cyber special-education students the per-pupil figure presented was $27,629 (brick-and-mortar special-education per-student costs cited were higher, roughly $30,540). Current charter counts discussed in the presentation were about 210 regular-education charter students and 82 special-education charter students; the administration projected approximately $2.3 million for special-education charter tuition and approximately $2.9 million for regular-ed charter tuition in next year's draft.

Other assumptions: The draft does not yet include any millage increase; Statler presented the district's current millage (16.8633) and Act 1 index options (Carlisle's adjusted index ~5.3%). The board was shown the tax impact scenarios for a $100,000 and the median assessed home. The fund-balance and capital-reserve positions were reviewed; Statler noted a prior $3 million athletic-facilities transfer has been moved to capital reserve and described forthcoming borrowing for capital needs.

Board discussion and next steps: Board and administration members discussed uncertainties including federal/state funding outcomes, the potential cyber charter cap proposed in the governors budget (which could lower some district costs if enacted), substitution and aide contracts that are under RFP review, and the need to finalize assumptions and staffing before the final proposed budget. Statler said the administration had reduced an earlier presented gap (about $5.1 million) to roughly $4.1 million by trimming department budgets and identifying savings; that figure still assumes five new positions (including one special-education teacher, adjustments for English-learner needs and a social worker moved from grant funding into the general fund).

Statler outlined an April-May schedule of budget work: updated revenue assumptions, review of governor's proposals for likely impacts, and a May 1 proposed-final presentation, May 15 board presentation and June 26 final adoption. He emphasized several decision points the board will face next month, including how much of the governor's proposed increases to count in the draft and whether to use some local fund balance or adopt a millage increase.

No final action on the budget occurred at the committee meeting; administration will return with refined figures and a recommended tax/millage approach.