Board approves 26–27 budget that includes retention incentives and contingency transfers

Trustees approved the districtbudget for fiscal 2026–27 after staff presented a draft that accounts for lower ADA and several one-time items. S2 told the board the proposed budget was intentionally conservative on collections: staff reduced projected collections below expected levels and included a $313,000 anticipated second-state payment to stabilize the I&S and M&O forecast.

S2 outlined discretionary items and recommended preserving staff retention incentives agreed to in August (described as $205,000 in total) and an attendance bonus structure ($1,000 per certified staff member and $500 per non-certified staff member). On balancing the budget S2 said the district may need to draw $538,465 from the PB bank to close the gap. One board member pressed staff not to build the budget on enrollment that has not yet been confirmed; staff committed to rerunning projections after the first six weeks of school. "I would like to do, you know, after the first 6 weeks, I'll run the template and see what it looks like," S2 said.

The board approved the budget by motion and voice vote and also approved routine year-end budget amendments to move money between function codes to avoid overspending in constrained accounts.