Westwood Heights board adopts 2024-25 final budget, approves initial 2025-26 budget and short-term borrowing resolution

The Westwood Heights Schools Board of Education on Tuesday adopted the district's final 2024-25 budget, certified the 2025 tax rate and approved an initial 2025-26 budget, while authorizing a short-term borrowing resolution of up to $2 million through the Michigan Finance Authority to cover possible cash-flow needs.

A district finance staff member, presenting the fiscal summary, said the district budgeted roughly $21.7 million in revenues for the year and expects to close the 2024-25 fiscal year with about $21.6 million in final revenue, a decline of roughly $113,000 tied to unspent grants carried forward to the next year. "We are ending the year with a blended count of just under 1,200 students," the staff member said, describing the district as one with declining enrollment and noting that the blended count combines fall and spring counts.

The presenter told the board the district currently expects to finish the year with an estimated shortfall of about $915,000 and a fund balance of about $5.2 million (approximately 23.24 percent of general fund expenditures). For 2025-26, using current assumptions and pending the state budget, the administration projected a roughly $3 million reduction in fund balance, leaving an estimated ending balance of about $2.2 million (about 10.19 percent).

Nut graf: The board advanced multiple fiscal measures that keep the district solvent in the near term but leave it exposed to state budget decisions and continued enrollment decline. The administration recommended conservative assumptions for 2025-26 because the Michigan state budget had not been finalized at the time of the meeting; the board deferred further adjustments until state action and the district's fall count are…