School board votes to use $1 million from fund balance, seeks $1 million more in cuts to close FY27 gap

A majority of the Washington County School Board voted to draw $1 million from the district’s fund balance and ask the superintendent to identify another $1 million in operating cuts to close a roughly $2 million shortfall in the FY27 budget.

"I make a motion that we ... close that 2 million by taking an additional 1 million from our fund balance and then asking the superintendent to make another 1 million in operating cuts," said Mr. Bars, who introduced the motion. Board members discussed whether the motion represented a final action or direction to staff and whether it constituted a first or second reading of any policy implications.

A staff presenter summarized prior adjustments the board had already approved and returned from the budget committee, including eliminating proposed coaching supplement improvements, removing three planned special-education teacher additions and reducing the planned raise for non-certified staff from $1 to $0.50 an hour. The presenter said those actions reduced the earlier $7.8 million gap by about $789,000 and, after further attrition-based cuts, total reductions of roughly $2.799 million were recorded.

The presenter listed additional reductions by attrition and nonrenewal that contributed to the savings: 19 general-education teacher positions (about $1.687 million), one CTE teacher ($88,000), two central office secretaries (roughly $90,000), a district courier position and one district instructional coach (about $80,000).

One board member said $1 million was not enough and urged a $2 million approach; another said the pressure was being felt by students and staff, not the board. "It's not us being put in this position. It's the kids, the teachers, the support staff," a board member said.

Voting was recorded as five yeses and four nos on the motion to use the fund balance and seek additional cuts. The board did not list individual vote names in the transcript. Meeting minutes will supply the formal vote roll and any specific instructions the board gave the superintendent about which programs or positions to target for further reductions.

Next steps: if the board’s motion is implemented, staff will return with proposed operating reductions totaling about $1 million and the board will decide whether to approve those changes in a subsequent meeting.