Budget outlook clouds as enrollment drops and charter funding fix faces expiration

District finance staff delivered an early budget update that flagged a series of pressures the board will weigh as it builds next year's spending plan.

Miss Lanier told the board the statewide revenue forecast appears weaker than previously expected and cited rising Medicaid costs as a driver of state budget pressure. She said the district is preparing for the possibility that implementation of the new School Finance Act could be paused; staff projected that pause would lower the district’s school finance revenue by $1,500,000 compared with current-year receipts.

The district’s official October 2025 funded pupil count was 32,917.6, Miss Lanier said, and staff are projecting a year-over-year decline of 890.1 funded pupils for 2026–27 under the district’s averaging assumptions. Miss Lanier also estimated one-time available funds at about $39,900,000, largely made up of mill-override collections that have timing constraints.

Miss Lanier explained a charter-school funding issue that was fixed for one year by the legislature; if lawmakers do not act again, the district may lack a statutory mechanism to fund certain charter schools in the new formula. "It will require legislation," she said.

Superintendent Chris Gadowski and finance staff highlighted other pressures: the district is modeling differences tied to assumptions about implementation percentages and averaging periods (staff cited a roughly $1.9–$2.0 million swing between different implementation scenarios) and recommended setting aside funding for unknowns while continuing to refine estimates. The board requested additional staff data on staffing, child-find caseloads, and the staff-survey results that the administration plans to distribute to the board.

Board members and staff emphasized programmatic priorities and a potential investment in the Crossroads program to provide more intensive supports to students in alternative settings; the superintendent said shifting resources to strengthen that program was likely to appear in his final recommendation.

The board will review more detailed budget materials and school-based budgets at upcoming meetings and principals' sessions the administration scheduled for the following day.