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Frontier presents rollover budget, flags special-education, healthcare and capital needs
Summary
Dr. Tillman outlined the district's rollover budget, projected revenue assumptions and spending shifts, noting upward pressure from special education placements, health-care costs and capital projects including a high-school boiler-room cleanup and Falcon Center transitions.
Dr. Tillman presented the Frontier Central School District's preliminary rollover budget and revenue outlook, telling the Board of Education the district is projecting higher costs next year driven by special-education placements, health-care premiums and capital requirements.
"One thing you'll see in my budget presentation is I'm a big proponent of putting pictures in there of what we do every day," Dr. Tillman said, opening his review of rollover assumptions, revenue projections and spending shifts. He framed the rollover as the current budget rolled forward with expected adjustments for utilities, insurance, and contract-driven salary increases.
Dr. Tillman said the district's audited end-of-year figure for 2023–24 was "around $99,000,000" and that the current baseline budget was higher as the district rolls current commitments into next year. He highlighted three cost areas of concern: health-insurance premiums, increased BOCES costs (presenter noted about a 3% participation increase) and higher required employer contributions to state retirement systems. One board member remarked that the "ERS contribution at 16.5%" appeared unusually high compared with recent trends.
On revenues, Dr. Tillman projected property-tax revenue near $51 million and used a conservative 2% assumption for state aid (noting the governor's proposed budget later referenced a slightly higher estimate for Frontier). He also said the district has bids pending for its Rx prescription contract and that several bidders were projecting revenue of over $1 million; he named CVS (noting bankruptcy concerns), Keenan and Univero as bidders.
District staff described spending shifts already identified for next year: several out-of-district special-education placements carrying six-figure per-student costs (tuition plus transportation), and the need to preserve summer-school offerings for credit-bearing secondary courses and K–8 reading interventions. Dr. Tillman estimated the minimal cost to run priority summer programs at roughly $350,000–$400,000, excluding transportation.
Capital and facilities needs outside the SOAR project were also listed: high-school boiler-room remediation and cleanup, stage structural repairs at the high school, middle-school outdoor courts and storage, and security and intercom upgrades across elementary schools. The district discussed the Falcon Center transition (UPK and other programs) and said adding a seventh UPK room should reduce the district's existing wait list.
Dr. Tillman said the district would finalize staffing and tax-cap calculations in the coming weeks and provide a more detailed draft of next year's budget in March. "Our draft of next year's initial full budget will be in the next 2 weeks," he said.
Board members asked about the ERS/TRS retirement contributions, BOCES lags and aid timing, summer-school scope, and the budget implications of moving UPK to the Falcon Center. Dr. Tillman and the superintendent said they would return with additional detail in the March budget presentations.
