Verona board approves 2025–26 budget and $83.2 million levy amid declining early-grade enrollment and rising voucher costs
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Summary
The Verona Area School District board approved the 2025–26 budget, certified an $83,225,538 tax levy and discussed a drop in K/4K enrollment and the district’s increasing state-aid losses to private voucher schools.
The Verona Area School District board approved the 2025–26 operating budget and certified a tax levy of $83,225,538 after discussion of enrollment trends, state aid and voucher-school impacts.
Board members approved the budget in a final recorded vote in which one member abstained. The board certified the levy immediately after approving the budget. "All those in favor of approving the 2526 budget as previously presented, signify with aye," the board president said during the vote; the record later showed Corby as an abstention on the final vote.
Administrators told the board the district’s head count is down about 150 pupils compared with the prior year, concentrated in early grades: 51 fewer 4K students and 45 fewer kindergarten students. Pete (district finance staff) explained the enrollment shift reduced the district’s membership and lowered its FTE by an estimated 60 students for revenue calculation purposes, which is averaged into a three-year formula used by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). "We are down 60 FTE per minor to the board… and that is calculated into a three-year average," Pete said. District staff estimated the budgetary impact at roughly $16,000 per FTE when combining state aid and local levy effects.
The budget presentation highlighted other fiscal items: a recommended mill rate of 10.66, an estimated average property tax increase of about 2.5% for the average property owner, and a debt defeasance recommendation of nearly $6 million to reduce interest costs. The presentation noted equalized property values for the district rose about 9.23% and that net new construction was calculated at 3.49 percent.
Board members and staff also discussed voucher schools and their growing cost to public districts. The district reported voucher enrollments rose from 36 students to 74 students over several years; staff said this enrollment shift translated to roughly $900,000 in state aid that no longer flows to the district because the state sends that funding to voucher schools. "When students head to a voucher school… it's taking with them $13,000 of funding," a staff presenter explained. The budget slides said about 1% of district tax dollars are effectively routed to private voucher providers under current state mechanisms.
During deliberations board members emphasized balancing taxpayer impacts with staffing, capital planning and obligations to students and staff. The board’s recommended levy was designed to stay below the rate of inflation, according to district presenters.
Actions taken: the board approved the 2025–26 budget as presented and certified the levy at $83,225,538. The record shows a subsequent motion to rescind and re-vote was made to correct the minutes; the final vote carried with one abstention.
Next steps: staff will submit the approved budget and levy to municipal assessors for tax-bill preparation and return to the board with regular implementation updates and enrollment monitoring during the 2025–26 year.
