Budget Committee approves general fund budget
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TTSD’s Budget Committee approved a $192.8 million general fund budget Thursday for the 2025-26 school year.
Jessica Seay, chief financial officer and budget officer, outlined how declining enrollment, increased costs and insufficient state funding continue to create local budget challenges. The coming year’s TTSD budget is less than 1% higher than the 2024-25 budget of $191.2 million.
The 2025-26 budget relies on spending $1.37 million from reserves, which is projected to leave a 7% balance in the District’s reserves by the end of the coming year.
Seay described how the District has spent about $20 million from reserves over the past five years. At the same time, staffing has risen 14.5% and enrollment has fallen 9.3%. The enrollment decline of about 1,200 students since the 2018-2019 school year equates to a reduction of about $13.5 million annually in state funding.
Superintendent Dr. Iton Udosenata and Board Chair Tristan Irvin both discussed how declining birth rates and a lack of affordable housing are contributing to reduced enrollment.
One of the largest drivers of annual cost increases in the budget is employee salaries and benefits. Employee costs make up about 86% of the District’s budget.
Meeting the District’s budget obligations in the coming year will require reductions of $10.6 million, Seay outlined. To meet that goal, the School Board in April approved a reduction in force declaration of about 75 FTE, less any retirements or resignations.
Seay’s presentation also included an analysis of TTSD staffing groups as a proportion of student enrollment. The analysis concluded that (page 24) TTSD has the highest ratio of licensed staff per student and lowest ratio of administrator positions per student among seven metro-area districts.
The Budget Committee comprises the five-member School Board as well as six community members. The next step in the budget process is for the TTSD School Board to adopt the budget, which under state law must occur before July 1. The Board will consider the budget at a public hearing June 9.