The St. Louis Public Schools budget committee on a voice vote approved a recommendation to forward a budget amendment to the full board that increases the district’s FY26 revenue by about $1.7 million.

CFO Kimberly Johnson, presenting an abbreviated October financial report, told the committee the amendment reflects unexpected local revenues—chiefly insurance proceeds—totaling about $1.7 million and would raise the district’s revenue budget from roughly $339 million to about $341 million while leaving the district’s total projected expenditures unchanged. "We are now saying our revenue, which we know for sure is at $341,000,000," Johnson said during the presentation.

The amendment does not increase the overall spending total but reallocates funds between object codes, shifting resources into line items that support salaries, benefits and purchase services and reducing sums in supplies and materials. Johnson said the change reflects revenue that was not included in the previously approved FY26 budget and does not create new recurring spending commitments.

The presentation also included updated year-to-date financial figures: Johnson reported total year-to-date revenue of roughly $21 million and year-to-date expenditures of about $39 million against combined budgets in the low hundreds of millions, with overall burn rates near 5% for revenue and expenditures aligned with early-year expectations.

Committee members pressed staff on a handful of issues, including a calculation error on a slide showing encumbrances; Johnson acknowledged the error, said the corrected figures are posted on the district website and promised to distribute the corrected presentation. She also described tornado-related emergency spending: of an initial $1.4 million allocation for cleanup and immediate remediation, about $1.3 million had been encumbered or spent, leaving a small remaining balance and additional estimates for restoration and temporary needs in the low millions.

Johnson recommended that incoming FEMA, state emergency management (CEMA) and insurance proceeds be used first to replace contingency funds already tapped for tornado response and then to replenish contingency for future emergencies. "Any funds that we receive so far in terms of our FEMA, CEMA, and insurance proceeds, at very least go back to support what was taken from the contingency funds," she said.

On the district’s fund-balance outlook, Johnson said an earlier FY25 projection that would have drawn $35 million from reserves has been revised; pending final audit numbers, the district now estimates a fund-balance draw closer to $18.6 million. She emphasized the district remains well above minimum reserve thresholds and said staff would provide final audited figures when available.

After the presentation and a brief period for questions and clarifications, Chair Alyssa AJ Foster moved that the committee forward the amendment recommendation to the full board’s Dec. 9 meeting; the motion was seconded and passed on a voice vote. The committee also approved prior meeting minutes and adjourned at 11:25 a.m.

The full board will receive the amendment recommendation on Dec. 9, when members will see the corrected presentation and the staff report with updated encumbrance and fund-balance figures.