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Board reviews FY27 preliminary budget: enrollment, fund balance and levy components
Summary
Staff presented a conservative FY27 budget with projected enrollment of about 12,130 students, an estimated unassigned fund balance near 8–8.5% ($19.2M) and a breakdown of levy components (about $59M property tax revenue including roughly $24.9M voter-approved referendum). Members discussed rising benefits costs, capital device financing and facility utilization.
District finance staff presented the FY27 preliminary budget and five-year projections at the June 9 work session, outlining key revenue and expenditure drivers and conservative assumptions.
Staff reported a projected enrollment of about 12,130 students for the coming year and a projected unassigned general-fund balance of roughly 8–8.5% ($19.2M), below the district’s 10% target but improved from earlier years. “We feel pretty good about that. It's a conservative budget,” the director of finance said.
The packet breaks property-tax revenue into mandated pieces and voter-approved referendum revenue: about $59M total property-tax support, of which roughly $24.9M is from the operating referendum that voters approved. Board members discussed how the levy components appear to the public and the distinction between voter-approved amounts and state-mandated levies.
On expenditures, staff noted salaries and benefits represent roughly 73% of general-fund costs (about $111M in salaries and $54.7M in benefits), with benefits increasing notably year over year—largely from health insurance and new state leave requirements. Capital spending includes a planned $5M financing for student devices (lease-purchase), and the capital/bond program will drive large construction draws when the bond sales occur.
Other funds: the student-nutrition fund remains healthy; the health-insurance internal-service fund is projecting about $36.7M in spend for the fiscal year with uncertainty from late summer claims. Staff explained that if the health-insurance fund requires support, the general fund would temporarily cover it and be reimbursed when premiums arrive.
Why it matters: The FY27 assumptions underlie levy-setting, staffing and program decisions. Board members pushed for more clarity on per-student spending at the high schools, the distribution of staff steps that drive higher per-student costs at Lakeville South, and requested clearer levy breakdowns in public materials.
Next steps: Staff will return with more detailed pre-sale bond estimates, refined budget pages, and additional analysis on high-school staffing and common assessment proposals to support goal-setting and potential future referendum discussions.
