Victor Central School District board hears plan to use $6.5 million in fund balance to close 2026–27 budget gap

Victor Central School District Board of Education members received a 2026–27 budget update on March 26 in which district staff outlined a plan to close a roughly $6.5 million shortfall by appropriating funds from the current-year balance while pursuing continued state advocacy and internal savings.

Christine, who presented the update, said the district started with a projected $7.6 million gap and has identified a combination of a likely 2% increase in foundation aid (an estimated $271,000), about $28,000 in staffing-related expense reductions and a $575,000 cut to the contingency line to reduce the gap to roughly $6.5 million. "Our plan is to have no reductions in student programmings during the 2627 school year, no redu no layoffs to staff, and we plan to maintain established class size parameters," Christine said.

The administration proposed bridging the remaining shortfall by appropriating fund balance from this year, which would close the immediate gap but reduce reserves. Christine warned that the district's operational reserves are currently on the low side—about 6% by her estimate compared with a more common 15–20% range—and that relying on one-time funds to solve a recurring structural deficit risks future budget stress and potential tax impacts. "If we move forward and we have to dip into reserves for the 2728 budget, again, we're not funding reserves. We'd be reducing reserves," she said.

Health-insurance cost inflation was identified as the primary driver of expense growth. Christine said one health plan rose about 18.5% and another about 12.5%, a combination that she said amounts to roughly a 15.5% increase overall and helps explain why expenses are growing faster than revenues. "While our expenses are going up at that pace, our revenues aren't," she said, framing the difference as a structural budget challenge.

As part of the path forward, the administration emphasized continued advocacy at the state level and local innovation to find recurring revenue and structural savings. Christine described work with community partners and the regional health-insurance consortium and said the district will review vacancies, contracts and service agreements to identify sustainable reductions that do not cut student programs.

During discussion, trustees and other board members praised the administration's refinement of the numbers and raised broader regional issues. One board member said health-insurance pressures are affecting many districts in the region and suggested coordinated efforts across districts to find solutions. Another board member noted that a half-percent county sales-tax applied to Ontario County — an idea discussed in other forums — could provide significant additional revenue; a speaker said an AI-generated model estimated about $5 million annually for Victor from a 0.5% tax but cautioned the figure is an estimate and requires official modeling and fact-checking.

Key next steps in the calendar are a board adoption of the proposed budget on April 16, a public budget hearing on May 5 (also a meet-the-candidates event), voter registration May 12 and the budget vote and Board of Education election on May 19. Christine told trustees she will continue refining line-item detail in the budget book and provide follow-up explanations for any lines that require clarification.

The board did not take formal action on the proposal at the workshop; the administration will present the proposed budget for adoption at the April 16 meeting ahead of the May public hearing and vote.