District projects $72.7M operating budget, warns enrollment decline and pending tax cap could tighten future aid

Amy Drogimire, a district finance official, told bargaining-team members that “this year we are expected to receive approximately $110 million in total” and that $72.7 million of that is the operating budget available for general staffing and programs.

Drogimire said 84% of operating funds — roughly $53.7 million — go to payroll, with non-payroll spending down to about 16% after recent efficiency efforts. She reported 842.5 full-time-equivalent positions (down about 1.9% year over year) and said year-to-date payroll is projected to be slightly under budget: “we are projected that we are going to spend $64.78 million on our payroll piece of this budget,” she said.

Looking ahead, administrators described a tight revenue picture. Drogimire said anticipated new state aid for next year is essentially flat: “I am only projecting that we will have new state aid next year of $1,540,” and cited continuing declines in enrollment and associated weightings as the primary pressure. She called enrollment “the elephant in the room,” saying enrollment growth is central to the district’s fiscal stability.

To manage the shortfall, the district identified a package of cost-saving moves and one-time uses of carryover: projected operating carryover is about $1 million; the district used approximately $1.8 million from an instructional fund for a recent ELA curriculum adoption and plans to replenish some curriculum funds for math and science later. On recurring adjustments, administrators said they plan to:

- Reduce one school resource officer (SRO) position after notifying the City of Gardner; the district estimated roughly $45,000 in savings from that change. - End the intermittent co-responder partnership with Johnson County Mental Health, which has been difficult to fill, and stop funding that position next year. - Eliminate the “hard to fill” stipend for new special-education hires going forward (current employees will be grandfathered). - Cut building and departmental budgets roughly 10%–12% (districts’ per-pupil allocations were trimmed by about $5 per pupil). - Rely on attrition to achieve about $1 million in savings (the district reported about $700,000 in attrition so far and said an $1M target is realistic); administrators said they currently anticipate 8.8 FTE reductions that will result from attrition and other staffing adjustments.

Administrators also warned of two policy risks that could squeeze local revenue in coming years. They described a recently passed tax bill on the governor’s desk that would cap local levy revenue increases at the lower of 3% or the CPI-U with no exceptions for new construction or increased assessed valuation; if enacted, they said it could limit mill-levy increases for local options and capital outlay and change long-term planning. They also noted that rising assessed valuation could make the district ineligible for some capital-outlay state aid in a future cycle.

On benefits, the district projected a health- and dental-rate increase for 2027 (Drogimire said the district is budgeting for roughly a 12% rise and will have an early renewal discussion with Blue Cross in May). Drogimire closed by reiterating a stated priority: retaining staff remains the district’s top priority while leaders work to align spending with declining enrollment.

The finance team committed to provide negotiators a set of requested data — reserve balances, head-count and FTE breakdowns by admin/certified/classified, and a chart of custodial funding from capital outlay — the next morning.