Finance staff introduced the districts first look at the interactive budget workbook for fiscal year 2025–26 and outlined preliminary revenue and expenditure projections.

Why it matters: the workbook sets the baseline for how much the district can spend on raises, staffing and one‑time projects. The board will use these figures to weigh whether to restore positions, fund sustainability items or dedicate fund balance to capital and operational needs.

Finance staff member Amy Childress told trustees, “This evening we are going to take our first look at our interactive budget workbook for the 2025–26 budget year.” Using current legislative proposals as a baseline, staff presented a projected revenue total of $106,887,870 and proposed expenditures of $105,518,728, leaving a projected excess of $1,369,142.

Childress said the revenue projection represents an increase of roughly $4.5 million over the 2024–25 revenue figure. She said administration is carrying through some savings from the 2024–25 district reorganization and plans to include a proposed deputy superintendent position in the scenario but not to fund restored music, art and librarian positions at this time.

On insurance, Childress said the district currently contributes $474.49 per employee per month under recent plan changes and used a 9.5% estimate for the coming year in the worksheet, which would raise the contribution to about $519.57 per employee per month for the second half of the year.

Childress also identified pending revenue sources the district expects to add to fund balance: estimated reimbursements from wind‑farm litigation (about $71,865 in attorney‑fee reimbursement and $729,721 in supplemental taxes) and roughly $800,000 expected from additional state aid after a property‑value audit is finalized. With those additions, staff estimated an excess fund balance above the required 75 days of roughly $6,072,072 for 2024–25 and said fund balance could approach $7 million once outstanding revenues are received.

Board members repeatedly raised the tradeoffs between restoring staff and funding raises. Trustees discussed seven combined music and art positions and four librarian positions that were removed in the 2024–25 budget; Childress said those positions were not included in her initial proposed budget scenario. She said reassignments and eliminations from the district reorganization could free roughly $2 million that the board could reallocate for raises or other priorities.

Trustees also asked about specific revenue lines, including bonus and CCMR (College, Career and Military Readiness) outcomes tied to CTE certifications; Childress said CCMR bonus funding has been a recurring revenue source and estimated it in the low hundreds of thousands annually (board discussion placed that figure around $300,000, “under half a million”).

Discussion also covered prekindergarten funding. Childress said state half‑day pre‑K funding would not be sufficient to sustain the districts full‑day pre‑K program without other revenue; she said Head Start transfers to district pre‑K would not bring equivalent ADA funding and that program restructuring would be necessary if Head Start funding changed.

Trustees asked staff to prepare an additional tab in the workbook that isolates sustainability requests (from the facilities presentation) and shows scenarios funded from fund balance so board members can provide targeted feedback before the budget is finalized.

Administration said it will continue to scrub the budget, present updated worksheets and return with recommendations to the board as the legislature finalizes state funding guidance.