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Finance director previews FY2026 budget, flags $32,000 state-aid reduction and revenue assumptions
Summary
At a Jan. 22 Budget & Finance Advisory Committee meeting, Finance Director Leslie Powell presented a draft FY2026 budget, noting a $32,000 cut in preliminary state aid and asking the committee to confirm revenue assumptions before the school committee presentation.
Leslie Powell, North Kingstown’s director of finance, told the Budget and Finance Advisory Committee on Jan. 22 that the draft budget for fiscal year 2026 is a working document and includes updated state aid figures released Jan. 16.
“That is a working document,” Powell said, asking committee members to treat the packet as a draft and to raise questions before the school committee presentation. Powell said the current draft incorporates a $32,000 reduction in state aid based on the Jan. 16 RIDE posting and that the district will receive further updates when the governor’s budget is finalized.
The draft is organized by department (excluding salary lines in the operating rollup) and is supplemented by narrative intended to make the numbers easier to follow for the public and the school committee. Powell said the packet lists anticipated revenue sources including the town appropriation request, state aid, tuition from other local education agencies (notably Jamestown), preschool tuition and interest earnings.
Committee members pressed Powell on the investment-earnings assumption used in the revenue forecast. Several members said the original projection looked conservative; one committee member advocated for a higher assumption and asked the administration to prepare scenarios showing lower and higher earnings to present to the school committee. The committee agreed to present a $2.80 investment-earnings assumption at the next public workshop while also asking Powell to include alternative scenarios.
Powell also noted several revenue lines that are volatile or year-to-year variable: Medicaid reimbursements (which have fluctuated in recent years), indirect costs recovered from grants and rental income that is routinely transferred into the capital reserve. She said she kept some items conservative because the district lacks multi-year consistency in those lines.
The finance director said the document provides an initial town-appropriation estimate and an outside-sources total to guide the school committee’s deliberations; she asked the advisory committee to direct any edits before the formal school committee workshop later in the week. Powell said the town audit will be presented on the following Monday and that she expects to update fund-balance inputs once audited numbers are available.
Committee members recommended raising issues with state legislators about how North Kingstown’s transportation reimbursement is calculated and asked Powell to provide a breakout of charter/CTE enrollments and related transportation costs. Powell said she will add transportation detail and additional backup for Tuesday’s presentation.
