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Finance committee forwards $16,024,718 FY26 budget request to full board
Summary
The Preston School District Finance Committee unanimously voted Feb. 20 to send a proposed $16,024,718 2025-26 budget to the full Board of Education for consideration; Superintendent Dr. Seitsinger warned of possible layoffs for non‑tenured teachers and said the district will explore voluntary retirements amid uncertainty over state special-education funding.
At a Feb. 20 Finance Committee workshop, the Preston Public Schools Board of Education finance committee voted unanimously to send a proposed $16,024,718 budget request for the 2025-26 school year to the full Board of Education for consideration.
Superintendent Dr. Seitsinger told the committee that the governor recently added $40 million to state special‑education funding but cautioned that "it will probably go to cities," creating uncertainty about how much, if any, of that money would reach the district. Dr. Seitsinger said the administration recommends forwarding the draft budget packet to the full board and asked the committee to treat the packet as a working document.
The packet reviewed by the committee lists an adjusted 2025-26 budget request of $16,024,718, a 6.6% increase from the current-year figures shown in the materials. Dr. Seitsinger said the administration will notify non‑tenured teachers of the possibility of layoffs and will "explore: Voluntary Retirements" as an alternative way to reduce staffing if needed. The committee also directed specific edits to the packet, including renaming the page title "CUMC" to "Communications Manager," rewording "Acceptable Risks" to "Acceptable Risks & Acquired Increase," and adding a paragraph related to arriving students.
Committee members approved a motion (moved by Mike Hinton and seconded by Deborah Burke-Grabarek) to forward the budget packet titled "Preston Board of Education Budget Request 2025-2026" to the full Board for discussion at the next regular BOE meeting. The motion passed unanimously. The committee recorded the packet as a working document and indicated it was not to be distributed to the general public in its present form.
The workshop also recorded routine procedural actions: the committee approved minutes from its Feb. 13 meeting (motion moved by Chair Megan Gallant, seconded by Deborah Burke-Grabarek) and then approved a motion to adjourn. The committee listed the adjournment motion as approved in the minutes.
Next steps: the full Board of Education will consider the recommended 2025-26 budget package at its next regular meeting; the committee did not adopt the budget as final policy, but forwarded it for board review and potential modification.
