Elkhart Community Schools projects $16 million structural gap; administration says wage reductions required to balance 2026 budget
Summary
At a Dec. board meeting, the district’s finance lead said a $16,000,000 shortfall for the 2026 budget will require significant wage-and-benefit reductions, even if a bond issue moves forward; administrators described $93,000,000 in projected receipts and recent transfers between funds.
Miss Ross, a district staff member presenting the financial update, told the board the district is projecting about $93,000,000 in total receipts for the 2025–26 school year and has identified a $6,000,000 revenue reduction from the initial budget notice.
That adjustment, Miss Ross said, required rethinking transfers from the education fund to the operations fund and trimming projected transfers to help preserve near-term cash balances. She reported an education-fund cash balance in November of roughly $2,300,000 after transfers and an operations-fund balance of about $1,900,000, for total cash across funds of about $11,000,000.
On staffing costs, Miss Ross said wages and benefits now represent roughly 93% of education-fund spending and that the district spent about $86,000,000 on wages and benefits this year. To be in budget for 2026 the administration said wages and benefits would need to be about $70,000,000, producing an estimated structural gap of about $16,000,000. “The savings that we must accomplish must come from wages and benefits,” she said.
Board member Rhonda asked whether the 'remaining budget' figures shown on one slide used the original July budget or the adjusted budget. Miss Ross answered that revenue—not expenses—had been adjusted, acknowledged one slide had not been updated to reflect the adjusted figures, and confirmed that the remaining budget under the adjusted numbers should be nearer $7,300,000 rather than the $13,000,000 shown on the unadjusted slide.
Miss Ross said the administration expects to pursue a bond issue but cautioned that a bond would not fix the district’s structural spending issues. She said the district is implementing savings initiatives (including a district footprint and consolidation assessment) and reported payroll reductions year-over-year totaling roughly $1,800,000. She estimated the district would need to realize about $1,300,000 in savings per month during 2026 to address the gap.
The presentation closed with the administration urging continued work on payroll savings and other operational reductions while noting that some nonpayroll lines (curriculum, supplies, professional services) represent a relatively small portion of the education fund.
Miss Ross concluded the finance update and invited questions from the board; the board discussed slide clarifications and next steps for savings work.
The administration did not present binding new policy at the meeting; it asked the board to consider the updated figures and continue work on savings initiatives ahead of the 2026 fiscal year.
