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Carlisle Area SD board adopts proposed final FY2026-27 budget for 30-day public review
Summary
After a detailed finance committee presentation, the Carlisle Area School District board voted 8-0 (one absent) to adopt a proposed final budget for FY2026-27 that opens a 30-day public inspection and comment period; the proposal would set the millage at 18.0986 mils and maintain a 1.1% earned-income tax if finalized.
Bruce, the finance committee chair, presented the proposed final FY2026-27 budget and outlined the primary cost drivers: a roughly $2.2 million increase in special-education costs, $1.6 million in contract obligations, an $800,000 rise in cyber-charter tuition, higher transportation costs and roughly $600,000 in literacy-related mandates.
"We're really between a rock and a hard place," Bruce said, describing a revenue estimate near $122 million versus expenditures approaching $124–124.5 million and a roughly $2 million gap that, absent changes, would require a 4.2% property-tax increase.
Bruce moved a resolution to adopt the proposed final budget and place it on public inspection for 30 days; the board conducted a roll-call vote and the resolution passed 8-0 with one member absent. The president said the proposed real-estate tax millage for the district is set at 18.0986 mils and the district's earned-income tax rate would remain at 1.1% for the proposed FY2026-27 budget.
The budget presentation explained steps the district used to balance the proposal: drawing roughly $2 million from reserves to cover interest obligations, $1.3 million in expense reductions by attrition, modest health-insurance savings and other departmental cuts. Bruce noted the district is continuing to assume the legislature adopts the governor's proposed increases to state education funding; he said that if state assumptions change the board would revisit the plan.
Next steps: the proposed final budget will be posted for public inspection and comment for 30 days and returned to the board for a final adoption vote at the scheduled meeting in June.
