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Onalaska board approves year-end budget amendments, adopts preliminary 2026–27 budget
Summary
The Onalaska School Board approved several 2025–26 budget reclassifications and rebates and voted to adopt a preliminary $55.7 million 2026–27 budget that keeps programs while planning for enrollment and revenue uncertainties.
The Onalaska School Board on June 22 approved year-end budget amendments for 2025–26 and unanimously adopted a preliminary 2026–27 operating budget, after presentations from district finance staff.
Tyler, the district finance presenter, described the 2025–26 amendments as largely ‘‘reclasses’’ to prepare for audit, noting capital-project rebates of $180,000 and $12,000 in interest added to the employee benefit trust fund. ‘‘Were just moving the buckets,’’ Tyler said, describing transfers among funds to align revenues and expenses before closing the year.
The board then considered a preliminary 2026–27 budget that combines operating funds 10 and 27 at roughly $55.7 million, a 2.7% operating increase over the revised 2025–26 budget. The plan includes a $500,000 contingency (under 1% of the operating budget), and personnel costs remain the largest expenditure: $37.8 million directed to salaries and benefits, with $29.3 million of that going to instruction.
Key assumptions in the preliminary budget included continuing open enrollment, a conservative estimate of 25 students for a new online academy (netting about $157,000), state special-education aid budgeted at an assumed 45% reimbursement rate, and rollout of all-day 4K with uncertain participation. Tyler said the figures will be refined as state aid certifications and fall student counts are finalized.
Board members asked for clarifications on reclasses and program assumptions. After a roll-call vote, board members recorded unanimous approval of the 2025–26 amendments and the preliminary 2026–27 budget.
What happens next: the district will refine assumptions over the summer, incorporate final state aid and membership counts in September, and bring a finalized budget to a public hearing and adoption in October.
