Greater Albany budget committee approves $213.8 million 2026-27 budget; sets property tax rate at $4.5855 per $1,000

The Greater Albany Public School District budget committee voted June 3 to approve the district'7 budget in the amount of $213,766,578 and approved a permanent property tax rate of $4.5855 per $1,000 of assessed value. The committee also approved a $17,308,000 general obligation capital construction bond levy.

The committeeapproved the motion after the chair read the budget language aloud; Doris Johnston moved to approve and the committee voiced unanimous assent.

Committee discussion before the vote centered on staffing, enrollment trends and short-term budget adjustments. Andy Gardner, the district superintendent, framed the administrationstrategy as prioritizing classroom instruction and developing consistent practice across schools. "We have begun to really shift towards focusing on instruction, through teacher practice as well as administrator practice," Gardner said, describing use of a common instructional rubric and expanded "learning walks" for teachers.

District business director Jane Nausigar told the committee the districthas seen a modest enrollment decline: the third-period Average Daily Membership (ADM) is down 57 students since December and kindergarten enrollment is arriving lower than expected. "It is continuing, and it's lower than what I based the budget on," Nausigar said, and she said the district will monitor numbers and adjust after ODE provides final October counts.

To avoid cutting classroom positions this year, the district plans a one-time use of beginning fund balance. Nausigar said the budget as adopted uses $4,500,000 of the beginning fund balance and that the district anticipates ending the year near its board policy level for reserves. She also warned that a PERS-related rate credit that reduces salary-related costs by roughly 7% will expire in 2027-28, creating a material cost pressure next biennium.

The budget packet included a set of technical adjustments the committee reviewed: a $150,000 transfer from the general fund to create a curriculum reserve (subfund 257), an increase of $117,000 in the transportation fuel budget to reflect higher fuel assumptions, a $32,631 increase to teacher personal leave funding and a $300,000 increase to beginning fund balance projections. Nausigar said those changes net to $450,000 across funds and reflect updated revenue and vacancy projections.

Committee members and district staff also discussed recent changes to instructional-support staffing. Bruce Schmidt, district staff, said not every building previously had a full-time instructional coach and that the district has combined some instructional coach and dean duties in buildings so coaches may also handle student supervision and building leadership tasks. "Not every building in the district had an instructional coach," Schmidt said. He described coaches' core functions: analyzing iReady data, forming small reading groups, modeling lessons and co-teaching as curriculum experts.

Staff said they are reducing duplicative data-entry tasks that had added to coaches' workloads and are promoting more in-class small-group instruction to reduce pull-out interventions. Gardner described prior work choosing a five-dimension instructional rubric and pausing formal evaluations while principals and teachers built common practice; he stressed giving feedback as quickly as possible after observations.

Public comment was not offered; no members of the public had signed up to speak. After the vote, the committee adjourned.

Actions recorded at the meeting include approval of the May 20 minutes, adoption of the 2026-27 budget and the adjournment motion. The budget will proceed according to district procedures for implementation and monitoring; the administration will report enrollment and financial adjustments as ODE and year-end figures become available.