Kensington workshop: draft FY27 budget at 4.9% as aging HVAC, insurance and R&M drive costs

At a budget workshop, SAU 16 staff presented a draft fiscal-year 2027 spending plan for the Kensington School District that currently shows a 4.9 percent increase from the current year, driven primarily by rising health and dental costs and urgent repair and maintenance for the district's heating, ventilation and controls systems.

Renee (SAU 16 administrator) told the board the district faces a roughly $95,000 increase in health and dental premiums and that facility work on the building's control systems and boilers is a separate, looming expense. "We could probably find the money in this year's budget to go ahead and do the controls fix if you want us to," she said, describing the control system as the building's "nervous system" and the boilers as the "heart." (quotes taken from the meeting transcript)

Why it matters: staff said the control-management bids received so far range from $95,000 to $115,000 and that a full program of boiler and related repairs could push total repair-and-maintenance needs toward a conservative estimate of $250,000. The district has a facilities maintenance trust with…