Superintendent Corey Butler answers questions about consulting costs, transfers and stipends in FY26–27 budget

Superintendent Corey Butler addressed four questions raised during a July 14 public hearing about the proposed FY26–27 operating budget. He said the bulk of the consulting/professional-development line (approximately $574,217, as stated at the meeting) is grant-funded; an additional roughly $50,000 for instructional-technology training will come from the district's 1¢ sales-tax fund. Butler said the district has prioritized professional-development spending to build capacity among principals, teachers and paraprofessionals and noted that past consultant spending varied by year.

Butler also outlined a transfer of $4,333,403 from the general fund to the building fund to cover capital needs: $658,076 was added to cover an HVAC project at Village East (including a security vestibule) and $3,675,327 was transferred to support the child-nutrition warehouse freezer and building. He responded to a separate question about a $300,000 stipend pool, saying qualifying teachers at qualifying schools received the designated payments on regular pay dates, and described the $5,000 stipend timing (half after the first semester, half after the school year). On the broader concern about a reported $7 million shortfall, Butler said the district is not attempting to dip into reserves and is taking stepwise budget actions and personnel adjustments to manage the gap. "Budgeting is complex," Butler said, "...we have to be good stewards of the public's tax dollars."