Jamesville‑DeWitt officials warn of roughly $3 million budget gap as state aid holds nearly flat

Brian (Speaker 1), the district’s budget presenter, told the board the governor’s budget is expected Jan. 20 and that “as of right now, what we’re looking at is our foundation aid in the state aid runs that are available publicly is going up about $14,000.”

Administrators combined that preliminary state aid figure with a tentative tax‑levy increase close to the tax‑cap 2% and estimated roughly $1.2 million in new revenue. They then ran high‑level scenarios for expense inflation: “If everything just went up 3% … we would need roughly $2,300,000,” Speaker 1 said; a 4% scenario increases the shortfall to about $3.0 million and 5% to about $3.7 million.

The presentation identified two large cost pressures—health insurance and property/auto insurance—that together could add just over $1.1 million to expenses (health insurance projected to rise about 8%, property/auto about 9.5%). Speaker 5 (Dr. Woodcock) framed the budget outlook as a post‑COVID “cliff,” noting that pandemic grants and some phased‑in foundation aid increases are now exhausted.

Administrators said next steps include plugging in settled contract numbers, reviewing state aid runs when they arrive, and using attrition (retirements and resignations) to reduce potential staffing impacts. Dr. Woodcock told the board, “we are looking at, if we do our best work, about a $3,000,000 gap,” and stressed the numbers will be refined in the coming weeks as state data and contract figures are finalized.

Why it matters: the board must adopt a balanced budget for 2026–27 and will need to decide how much of the gap to absorb through reserves, tax‑levy adjustments, or reductions in staffing or programming. Administrators emphasized transparency and staff outreach in the lead‑up to the budget vote.