Finance committee hears pleas to protect schools as district warns of roughly $4.5 million shortfall

The Rochester City Council finance committee on the evening’s agenda heard a detailed presentation from the Rochester School Board chair that the district faces an approximately $4 million to $4.5 million structural shortfall and appealed to the city for collaboration to avoid classroom cuts.

Councilor Susan Rice, speaking during public input as a member of the Rochester City Council, told the committee the shortfall is not a sudden problem but the result of the city's fiscal structure and outdated public financial materials. Rice said much of the information posted online is for fiscal year 202324 and that officials are preparing budgets for fiscal year 2027 using data she described as "already two years old." She pressed the administration to share the financial model behind the school shortfall and asked: "Was the 4.3 to 4,500,000 projection generated through the finance department's tax-cap modeling?"

Rice cited specific figures from city documents, saying the tax-cap's allowable increase appeared to be about $3,300,000 (roughly 4.17%), with the city and county combined share around $1,340,000…