District finance staff opened the Victor Central School District board’s budget season and presented a rollover budget that assumes maintaining current staffing and applying only contractual changes. Christine, the district finance presenter, said the district ended fiscal year 2025 with a total restricted fund balance of "$10,102,437," excluding capital reserves. She noted the capital reserve was reduced to about $3.3 million after funding the district’s $99 million capital project.

Christine described a rollover budget as the calculation of revenue required to keep current services and staffing in place before adding new initiatives. She said projected personnel cost increases include a $1.5 million (about 4%) increase in instructional salaries, a $550,000 increase in noninstructional salaries and an anticipated 10.2% rise in fringe benefits — “over $3.2 million” in additional health insurance costs, she said.

Board members asked for peer comparisons and additional detail on reserve targets and were told staff will provide regional comparatives and a more granular breakdown. The board discussed the distinction between capital and operational reserves and the goal of maintaining a contingency sufficient to fund a future local share of capital projects. Christine said more detailed departmental reviews will begin in January and that final budget recommendations are scheduled for April, before the budget vote in May.

Next steps: the board expects workshops on transportation, operations, security and building budgets in January; instruction and pupil services in February; a personnel update in March; and a formal budget adoption in April leading to the May budget vote.