Dover Area SD CFO presents preliminary 2025–26 budget showing roughly $240,000 shortfall; board asks for options

Miranda Weaver, the district chief financial officer, told the Dover Area School District Board of Directors on Jan. 21 that preliminary work on the 2025–26 general fund budget shows a projected deficit of about $240,000. Weaver said that starting-point shortfall is substantially smaller than the deficit the district began with this time last year.

Weaver said major expenditure pressures include additional staffing for special education (an elementary autistic-support classroom and a possible intensive learning-support classroom), increases in salary and benefits, higher costs for transportation and utilities (natural gas and electricity), and the district’s planned replacement of a fleet of copy machines. On the revenue side, Weaver said the draft budget shows increases in earned income tax and several state line items — including basic education and special education funding and a Ready-to-Learn grant adequacy supplement — and that 2024–25 included charter school reimbursement for the first time in years.

Why it matters: Board members pressed Weaver for specifics because the gap, while much smaller than last year’s early estimate, still requires choices. The board must…