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Board hears draft‑2 budget showing deficit trimmed; members debate preserving field trips
Summary
Administrators told the board that Draft 2 of the FY27 budget reduced a projected deficit from roughly $34 million to about $21.5 million through internal adjustments; with the proposed debt restructure and an optional Act‑1 levy the shortfall could drop further, and members discussed limiting certain field trips while seeking low‑cost alternatives.
Administrators presented Draft 2 of the FY27 budget, reporting major line‑item work behind the scenes that reduced the district’s earlier $34 million projected deficit to about $21,525,314.33 before additional actions. Staff outlined salary and benefit changes, retirement‑incentive planning, reductions in building and department budgets, and removal of a $5.2 million EPTEP reserve catch‑up from the current year’s entries.
Dr. Vitali summarized the work to get the deficit down and described a multi‑year goal to right‑size the budget with minimal student impact. She said staff tightened building and department expenditures and baked assumptions for professional‑staff salary bumps and some retirement incentives into Draft 2. The presentation also noted revenue assumptions: local revenue was held steady without a tax increase, state revenue included a roughly $5.5 million Ready‑to‑Learn increase, and federal revenue declines were shown.
Administrators and the school business consultant presented scenarios showing how the debt restructuring under discussion and an optional Act‑1 index levy (up to 5%) could jointly narrow the budget gap further; staff presented figures that, in the illustration, could lower the deficit to roughly the mid‑teens million range if both measures were used. Staff cautioned that some of the reductions relied on one‑time revenues and that continuing monitoring of state budget actions and assessed values remains critical.
Board members debated program impacts. Keith Carut, a board member, said he did not want to remove all student experiences but raised concerns about equity and costs; Carut said, “I don’t want to take an experience from our students,” and urged finding low‑cost local alternatives, sponsorships, or grant funding to preserve access. Other board members suggested clarifying policy language distinguishing class trips (fundraised by classes) from curriculum‑based field trips and exploring internal alternatives such as on‑site activities or community‑sponsored experiences.
Next steps: staff will present a deeper financial dive and an updated preliminary budget for board review in May with the final budget vote scheduled for June; they will also continue to monitor state funding, assessed‑value updates, retirement‑incentive timing and the EPTEP reserve position.
