Delhi district budget workshop shows 11% spending increase; board weighs reserves, purchases and staffing

The Delaware Academy Central School District at Delhi on Tuesday held a budget workshop in which district staff presented a proposed 2025–26 spending plan of $25,643,890, a year-over-year increase of about 11.04 percent, and recommended a tax-levy request at the 2.9 percent cap.

Presenter Carrie, identified throughout the workshop as the district’s business/finance staff member, told board members the headline increase is driven largely by increased debt service tied to recent capital projects, higher benefit costs and expanded special-education needs. "If you take out your debt service, which is a huge number ... you would come out to about 2.8%," Carrie said, explaining that debt principal and interest inflate the budget’s percentage change. She added that "every percentage point is $107,000," a figure the district uses to measure tax-levy impacts.

Why it matters: the debt-service schedule and rising benefits (health insurance projections of about 11–12 percent) make the district’s budget appear larger even though operating expense growth excluding debt is far smaller. The district has reserves and state aid that offset the local share, but board members noted those offsets are largely one-time or uncertain until the state finalizes aid levels.

Costs and budget pressures: presenters said insurance premiums, contracted services and supplies have increased; staff recently added a full-time occupational therapist and a speech pathologist, which drove higher supply and specialized-chair needs. The board discussed rising one-to-one aide requests for younger grades and the unpredictability of placements that can in extreme cases cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per student. Carrie said the district pads special-education lines to account for such out-of-district placement risk.

Options discussed: board members and staff reviewed a set of mitigation measures, including (1) applying one-time reserve funds to lower the local debt-service burden; (2) purchasing some non-contractual items (furniture, equipment, consumable supplies) in the current fiscal year to reduce next year’s incremental requests; and (3) trimming or denying select nonessential staff requests. The board noted contractual obligations and long-term capital purchases cannot simply be shifted across fiscal years without audit implications.

Procurement and operations: members raised fuel and energy volatility after a recent spike in fuel prices and a comment that a fuel bid had been about $60,000 higher than last year. Staff said they could rebid or use a contract based on OPIS prices, or consider short-term price-lock options to reduce exposure. Facilities staff requested modest increases to move bus-camera storage to a cloud system (presenter cited an $8,000 estimate) and a 'master library' asset-management package at roughly $4,000.

Programs and staffing: the board heard requests to continue an in-house 811 summer program (to avoid expensive out-of-district placements), pilot a middle-school SEAL program, and hire a certified foreign-language teacher and a technology/engineering teacher tied to a new tech wing. One large equipment purchase (a machine presented on the slides at roughly $48,000) and associated vendor training (quoted at about $12,000) were discussed; staff said some training and installation costs had been charged to project reserves in prior procurements.

Reserves and fund balance: presenters estimated year-end fund balance likely under $1 million, with earlier estimates in the $500,000–$750,000 range; they cautioned that reserves are one-time resources and the district must balance short-term relief against long-term sustainability. Staff emphasized the district has used capital reserves to smooth local share costs but that such uses require voter authorization when applied to capital-reserve ballots.

Board actions: the board approved two routine motions late in the meeting. The board appointed an impartial hearing officer from the district rotational list, naming Jeffrey J. Shyro (Esquire); that motion was seconded by Lucy and carried on voice vote. The board then moved to deny a request for homebound instruction for a particular student and related records; that motion also carried on a voice vote. No roll-call tallies were recorded on the audio.

Next steps: staff said the board could wait a short time for any state-aid developments but expects to finalize budget decisions in upcoming meetings; potential budget-workshop dates were announced and a regular board meeting with an anticipated executive session was scheduled for March 23. Staff indicated they will return next meeting with line-by-line figures showing the order of magnitude of new requests to help the board prioritize reductions or purchases.

Closing note: presenters repeatedly urged caution about relying on one-time reserves and emphasized that removing debt service from the calculation shows a much smaller operating increase; the board directed staff to continue refining options and to provide additional numeric detail at the next meeting.