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MCOE finance team warns of state budget uncertainty and presents preliminary 2025-26 budget
Summary
MCOE staff presented a preliminary 2025-26 budget showing reduced one-time federal/grant revenue, multiyear projections, and a recommendation to exclude a volatile state discretionary block grant from baseline assumptions; staff also previewed a countywide fiscal and HR system rollout.
Marin County Office of Education Chief Business Officer Bree Brown presented the preliminary 2025-26 MCOE budget and warned trustees that state and federal funding assumptions remain fluid.
Brown said the state'level picture was uncertain: staff advised against including the state's discretionary block grant in this year's baseline because the May revise reduced the widely discussed discretionary block grant from earlier estimates (Brown said the discretionary fund had shrunk from roughly $1.8 billion to about $500 million in state-level projections). She said the minimum or supplemental calculation for MCOE this year was approximately $238,000 and that staff were continuing to update the packet ahead of adoption on June 24.
Brown described structural shifts in revenue: front-funded grants and one-time pass-throughs (including a $5,000,000 Holocaust/genocide-related pass-through in 24-25) made 24-25 appear larger; those funds did not recur in 25-26. Staff highlighted a projected revenue decrease compared with the prior year and said some federal grants may be consolidated or reduced at the federal level.
On expenditures, staff included estimated COLA and step-and-column increases and employer pension cost increases in multiyear projections. Brown noted significant near-term facility needs that staff plan to incorporate before final adoption and described a countywide fiscal and human capital system implementation kickoff intended to standardize fiscal and HR platforms across districts (including the Data Processing Consortium consolidation mentioned in the packet).
Trustees asked detailed questions about line-item changes and requested backup documentation for some revenue assumptions; staff said the SACs forms in the packet include line-item detail and encouraged board members to submit detailed questions in writing for staff to answer ahead of adoption.
