Bullhead City School District board approves FY2025 budget revision after public hearing

Bullhead City — The Bullhead City School District Board approved Fiscal Year 2025 expenditure budget revision No. 1 following a public hearing during the district's special meeting Dec. 12.

Board President Melinda Zabrowski opened the hearing and staff presented a line-by-line summary of the proposed revision, calling attention to changes in average daily membership (ADM), the primary tax rate, and specific fund lines. "Keep in mind that's a average daily membership — it's not the number of students we actually have enrolled," the presenter told trustees, noting ADM fluctuations affect state funding calculations.

The presenter explained how the district identified roughly $302,000 in reductions by reallocating and tightening 'parking' funds (holding lines used to cover site-level variances) and by adjusting estimates for unfilled positions and fixed expenses. She described benefits as running at about "almost 22% of the regular salaries," and said the budget did not reduce salaries or benefits.

Trustees questioned several summary figures. The presenter acknowledged that the classroom site fund showed an apparent overage of about $126,000 on the summary page and that the unrestricted capital outlay fund totals did not match her internal calculations; she said those discrepancies would be fixed in a subsequent revision and that the state system will flag errors on upload. "If their system sees an error it pops right up — it says rejected ... or accepted but with these errors," she said.

Staff also pointed to a decline in federal-project balances: the summary shows about $3,000,000 in federal projects, down from more than twice that a year earlier when ESSER funds were still available. The presenter explained the district receives monthly BSA 55-1 reports that adjust funding based on ABDM/ADM data and said the board can adopt another revision if the data restores revenue ("we could potentially come back to the board in February or in January, probably in February, and ask for another ... revision," she said).

After the presentation and discussion, trustees moved and voted to adjourn the public hearing and then — during the special meeting — moved, seconded and approved the FY2025 expenditure budget revision No. 1 by recorded affirmative votes of the trustees present.

The presenter told the board a formal revision will be required in May per state rules and that staff will correct the identified summary discrepancies before that filing. The district also said it may file interim revisions if ADM or free-and-reduced data change materially.

Actions and next steps: The board approved the budget revision as presented with the understanding staff will correct the classroom site fund and unrestricted capital outlay discrepancies in a subsequent filing; staff will monitor the monthly BSA 55-1 report and may return with additional revisions if state funding is adjusted.

The board scheduled future meetings and adjourned the special meeting.