Stewartville board reviews revised 2024‑25 budget with enrollment and state aid adjustments

District staff presented a revised 2024‑25 budget and explained adjustments in revenue and expenditures, including new restricted training funds and changes to federal and levy allocations.

Mr. Schroeder (presenting staff member) said the district is using an enrollment figure of 1,944 K‑12 students in the revised budget and that the state basic formula amount in the presentation is $7,281 per student. He identified several revenue changes: newly allocated "redact" funding of $80,000 and an additional $72,000 earmarked for training stipends; an increased allocation to offset employer contribution rate changes (TRA) of about $75,000; and a decrease in federal special‑education flow‑through funding of about $70,000. He also noted a $34,000 decrease to the general levy line.

On the expense side, Schroeder and staff described administrative decreases of about $61,000 (restructuring and contracting out a payroll/HR position), a $130,000 decrease in licensed instructional costs, a $250,000 increase in paraprofessional (district‑employee) costs tied to bargaining‑unit changes, and an $84,000 increase in noninstructional support. Fees for services, shown as $278,000, reflect consolidation of payroll services and other contract changes. The presentation also noted a $30,000 increase in teacher‑substitute costs compared with the preliminary budget.

Board members pressed staff for details about the restricted training funds and stipend rules. A staff member summarized the stipend rules described in the presentation: teachers must complete required training hours, achieve 80% on assessments, and hold a certificate of completion to receive stipends; elementary staff face a two‑year training timeline and stipends will be prorated if staff depart before completion. The district said the $72,000 training allocation is a pass‑through to staff wages and includes employer payroll taxes.

Schroeder said the revised budget will guide work on the FY26 budget and that additional details and line‑by‑line coding are available in the accompanying documentation.

There was discussion about how districts are approaching required training days and whether districts built training into contract time or will pay stipends for hours outside contract time. No formal vote to adopt the revised budget was recorded in the meeting transcript excerpt provided; the item was presented and discussed as the board moved toward next steps in the budget calendar.