Coquille SD 8 budget committee approves $26.95 million budget, sets $4.2522 tax rate

The Coquille SD 8 Budget Committee approved the district’s 2025–26 budget with an appropriation of $26,950,038 and set the permanent tax rate for general fund operations at $4.2522 per $1,000 of assessed value. A committee member moved the motion, the chair seconded, and the chair recorded a voice vote in favor.

Committee members spent the discussion portion of the meeting pressing staff for clarifications on several line items before the vote. One committee member pointed to an athletics salary line that “went from 18,000 up to 183,” asking whether that represented a new total or a reclassification. A staff member said the budget had separated items that were previously combined and that some figures were redistributed across lines; the staff member did not state a consolidated athletics total on the record and the phrase in the transcript appears truncated, so the precise increased amount was not specified in the meeting record.

The committee also asked about phone stipends. A staff member explained that stipend funding and accounting depend on each employee’s mix of funding sources — for example, general fund and special revenue accounts — and that stipends are split proportionally to how salaries are funded. The staff member said licensed staff would receive a negotiated, one-time annual cell phone stipend, but the transcript did not record specific per-employee stipend amounts.

Members raised why substitute pay appeared as zeros on a summary page that previously showed amounts (the transcript cites prior lines such as $55,000 for licensed substitutes and $20,000 for classified substitutes). Staff confirmed substitutes remain budgeted but said those amounts were moved to other lines in the budget, not eliminated; the meeting record did not itemize the new line locations in detail.

After the clarifications, a committee member moved to approve the budget and tax rate. The chair called for a voice vote; “Aye” was recorded and no opposition was voiced in the transcript, and the chair declared the motion passed. The chair invited public comment; none was recorded before the chair closed the meeting.

The committee’s action sets the district’s appropriation and tax rate for the coming fiscal year. The meeting record does not include a roll-call vote or a breakdown of individual votes, and several numeric items discussed (notably the athletics figure and per-person stipend amounts) were not fully specified in the transcript and may be shown with fuller detail in the district’s formal budget documents.