District outlines plan to balance $224 million budget, citing loss of federal COVID-era aid

Donna, identified by the board as the district budget presenter, told the board the district has a strategy to balance its proposed $224,000,000 budget for the 2025–26 school year and described the principal drivers and trade-offs.

"We have a strategy for balancing the budget," Donna said, listing the loss of one-time COVID relief funds and lower-than-expected Foundation Aid as primary pressures. She told the board the district previously received roughly $7,300,000 from CRRSA and $11,500,000 from ARP distributed between 2020 and 2024 and that the proposed budget does not assume continued federal funding.

The presenter outlined four main components of the plan: eliminating expenditures tied to CRRSA and ARP; eliminating approximately 38 positions (35 of those are open because of retirements and resignations, and three were described as nursing positions expected to be laid off); reducing health-care expense assumptions by accounting for recently negotiated increased employee health-care contributions and anticipated prescription-cost savings; and drawing on reserves—specifically $2,000,000 from ERS and $1,000,000 from TRS—to close the remaining gap.

Donna placed the proposed total at $224,000,000, a year-over-year increase of about $11,800,000 or 5.59 percent. She said a sizeable portion of that increase stems from additional debt service—about $4,900,000—related to active capital projects; removing debt service from the calculation yields an operating-cost increase of roughly 3.4 percent.

Board President Michael Maurizio introduced the proclamation and thanked staff for the presentation; later he framed the approvals that the board would take under consent. Several board members and committee chairs thanked staff and noted outreach plans to ensure community members have opportunities to review the budget.

Donna also urged prudence in using reserves even if Albany increases funding later: "If they come forward with additional funding, it is our recommendation that the board not restore anything we're cutting but instead use less reserves to balance the budget," she said, citing the district's prior use of reserves and uncertainty about federal funding.

The presentation closed with a schedule of public budget meetings: an in-person meeting April 29 at Roxborough Road Middle School at 5 p.m.; a virtual meeting May 1 at 7 p.m.; a virtual meeting May 6 at 6 p.m.; an in-person meeting May 7 at Cicero; and the district office hearing on May 13, when the board anticipates adopting the budget.

What this means: The district's plan relies on a mix of personnel reductions (largely through not refilling vacancies), negotiated increases in employee health-care contributions, targeted expenditure eliminations tied to federal COVID-era funding, and limited reserve draws. The presentation did not include a line-by-line budget adoption vote in this session; the board scheduled additional public meetings before the final adoption.

Sources: District budget presentation delivered by Donna (district presenter) to the Board of Education during the meeting.