Clover district presents $151.3M 2026–27 budget; officials cite $5M shortfall as three new schools open

Mr. Love, the district presenter, told the public the Clover School District is proposing a $151,318,222 budget for 2026–27, driven largely by the operational and staffing costs of three newly opening schools and by rising utilities and insurance costs.

The presentation, given at the public hearing, outlined revenues of about $145,999,738 based on current assessments and a 98% collection assumption and identified recurring expenditure increases — including teacher salary step increases, a 2% support-staff increase and roughly $695,000 of extracurricular and co-curricular costs tied to the new high school — leaving a projected gap of about $5 million under the current revenue estimate.

Why it matters: The budget frames personnel and operating trade-offs as the district opens three campuses and shifts staff among schools to avoid hiring hundreds of new employees. Officials said the choices will affect class sizes, pre-K allocations and school operations in the coming year.

Mr. Love said the district is pursuing targeted, low-instructional-impact reductions to narrow the gap, including strategies to reduce substitute-pay expense (partly by reallocating some TAs to cover absences), renegotiating device leases and consolidating overlapping software licenses. "We paid $696,000 thus far for paid family leave this year," Mr. Love said during the presentation, and the district expects substitute pay could top $2 million this year if not better managed.

The presenter identified savings already realized or expected: a roughly $100,000 reduction in an Apple device lease and about $166,000 from IT/software consolidations. He described staffing changes needed to open the new campuses — about 22.5 teacher FTE, 9.5 classified FTE and 6 related-services FTE (roughly 30 positions total) — and said Roosevelt Middle will need proportionally more specialty teachers to align with other middle schools.

On revenue, Mr. Love explained state aid (the EFFA/aid-to-classrooms calculation), reimbursements for Act 388 owner-occupied property tax exemptions and other state allocations (bus-driver funding, retiree insurance credits). He said the legislature provided funding intended to support a $2,000-per-slot teacher increase but that the statewide contribution did not fully cover the district’s actual cost to implement that raise.

Parent concerns and board questions: During public comment, parent Cara Blazer urged restoration of a second pre-K class at Bethany, saying her daughter was placed on the wait list. "I've emailed several of you... I just wanted to come and advocate for Bethany," she said. Mr. Love responded that staff are monitoring 4K and 5K enrollment and "if we can lose a position somewhere else and move it to Bethany, we would do that," but he gave no immediate commitment.

Board members pressed for detail on cost shares and timing. One member asked whether salaries and fringe account for about 85% of the budget; Mr. Love said districts commonly operate in the mid-80% range and that last time Clover reached 85% was four years ago. Asked about the district’s carryover and fund balances, Mr. Love said the district carried over $1.4 million in the operating fund and placed $1.5 million in the building fund, with about $3.9 million available overall across funds.

A separate line of questioning turned to state voucher funding. Board member Mr. Gossett said the state set aside about $1.8 million for vouchers but used only some $44,000 and asked where the remainder went; Mr. Love said he could not answer immediately and would calculate and report back.

Capital and timing: Mr. Love described an HVAC/chiller repair expected to cost roughly $1.6M–$1.7M with engineering and inspection fees and noted that timing of capital spending affects the recurring budget picture. He told the board the district typically has a firmer year-end picture in September or October after county and state reconciliation (books remain open 60 days after year end).

The district will return to the board with reconciliations and a requested correction of a $300,000 slide discrepancy before a final budget vote. The public forum closed with officials agreeing to follow up on voucher calculations, the $300,000 discrepancy and any possible reallocation of pre-K positions based on enrollment updates.

Next steps: The board will reconvene after a short recess; staff said they will supply the requested reconciliations and calculations prior to any final action on the millage or the proposed budget.