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Region 15 budget workshop zeroes in on mental-health staffing and pay-to-play fees; board sends fee options to finance
Summary
Board members probed staffing for mental-health services and debated gate and pay-to-play fees as ways to balance the proposed 2026–27 budget. Staff offered modeling options and the board agreed to send fee scenarios and an activity-by-activity fee inventory to the finance committee for further analysis.
Board members spent substantial time March 23 scrutinizing the district’s 2026–27 financial picture, focusing on mental-health staffing, referral processes and the equity of athletic and activity fees.
Josh presented the February financials and explained that year-end surpluses reflected a mix of recovered grant revenue and lower-than-expected tuition costs. He described a proposed social-work staffing model — one social worker for each K–8 cluster and one for the high school — intended to provide continuity from pre-K through high school. Josh also reported that the district had gone from zero to nine students identified under McKinney-Vento since 2019, noting the growth represented families in immediate need of housing or stability services.
Board members asked for more detail on referrals and case-closure metrics. "They have an active list and then, when their case is closed, they move it over to a closed list," a board member summarized after staff confirmed tracking procedures. Staff agreed to provide additional data, including counts of referrals, average touchpoints per case and closure rates.
The meeting shifted into a detailed debate over gate fees and pay-to-play charges. Staff outlined three modeling approaches: keep current fees; eliminate gate fees and absorb official costs in the operating budget; or eliminate gate fees but offset lost revenue by modestly raising high-school pay-to-play fees. Board members raised equity concerns about middle-school families paying fees for shorter programs, and asked staff to compile a list of every activity and whether a fee is charged at middle and high school levels.
Several members urged a budget-neutral solution. "If we're worried about $50,000, we should raise pay-to-play at the high school and keep middle-school fees equitable," one member said. Another member recommended a finance-committee modeling exercise: "Here’s how we do it now; here’s idea 1, idea 2 and idea 3," staff replied, committing to produce models that show tradeoffs and impacts on the overall budget.
The board did not adopt fee changes at the meeting; instead, members agreed to send fee-modeling scenarios and an activity-fee inventory to the finance committee and to revisit the issue at the next finance meeting and the April 6 board session.
