Greenville leaders outline 2025–26 budget process and unpack Rockefeller study of foundation aid

Superintendent Michael Bennett opened the presentation by telling the board that the districts budget work centers on its mission and goals, saying the process "always talk[s] about going back to the focus of everything we do around our district goals" as curriculum, culture and community.

Assistant Superintendent for Business Todd Hilgendorf then walked the board through a four-part view of budget development: the rollover budget (carrying forward known costs such as salary and debt service), district budget priorities, modifications to requests, and revenue sources including property taxes and state aid. "The rollover budget is the process of taking this current year budget and adding anything that we know already is going to increase for next year," Hilgendorf said, noting salary and retirement (TRS/ERS) projections are being prepared now and preliminary rollover figures will be presented in January.

Board members asked for scenarios showing the effect of a 0% tax-levy increase. Hilgendorf agreed to include a 0% example at the January rollover check and said the property tax cap calculation will inform levy decisions in March. "So the first kind of pulse or the check of that could be with the rollover budget in January," he said.

Hilgendorf also summarized the Rockefeller Institutes recently published (300+ page) review of New York States foundation aid formula, funded by a $2,000,000 legislative appropriation. He said the study made box-by-box recommendations to improve how different factors influence aid, urged regular review rather than a 17-year gap between updates, and recommended using more current data sources. "There are some boxes of the formula that get updated every year. There are other boxes in that formula... census data is used in the current formula. It's data from the year 2000," Hilgendorf said, urging modernization where appropriate.

The report also suggested non-formula items that emerged consistently in listening sessions, including full state financing for electric school buses and expanded support for school-based mental health services. Hilgendorf stressed the Rockefeller report is advisory: any change would be phased in and would require legislative or executive action. "There's nothing binding," he said, calling the study a set of recommendations for the state to consider.

Board discussion touched on how some districtsparticipation in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) — which provides universal free meals — can depress free/reduced counts used as a poverty proxy in the formula. Hilgendorf said the Rockefeller team recommended replacing that poverty measure with a dataset less affected by CEP participation.

Why it matters: the foundation aid formula determines how much state aid districts receive and changes could redistribute aid among districts; the board asked administrators to provide modelling (including a 0% levy scenario) early in the January budget cycle so trustees can evaluate local impacts.

Whathappens next: Hilgendorf said the district will continue to monitor state deliberations and produce the requested scenario work for the boards January meeting.