Auburn Village School officials are reviewing between $340,000 and $470,000 in potential reductions after voters approved a school district tax cap on Nov. 3.
School Board members began identifying possible cuts at a Tuesday meeting. The options under discussion included reducing bus service, requiring fees for participation in school sports and delaying some equipment replacements. Officials expect to determine the exact effect on the budget at the board’s next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 8.
“These are hard decisions that we’re going to make. None of these are things we want to cut. Everything that we talked about tonight is important to our mission.” — Superintendent Bill Rearick
How the cap affects the budget
Auburn voters approved the tax-cap question by 1,973 to 1,218, or nearly 62%. The measure required at least 60% support and limits the growth of school property taxes to the rate of inflation plus the value of new taxable property.
In practice, school officials estimate that the cap will limit the increase in the school budget to about 4%. Some district expenses are rising faster than that threshold, including special education, insurance, employee benefits and costs set through contracts and union agreements.
- Auburn Village School’s current budget is about $21 million.
- Before the cap passed, officials anticipated a default budget of about $22 million, an increase of roughly $900,000.
- Requests in the proposed budget totaled about $22.15 million.
- Special education costs are expected to increase from about $3.85 million to $4.25 million, an increase of nearly 11%.
Required costs remain in the budget
Auburn has one school serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Administrators said the district must continue paying costs required to serve students with academic disabilities and to meet employee insurance and benefit obligations, even when those expenses rise more quickly than the cap allows.
The approximately $400,000 increase in special education spending was included in the district’s 2027-28 budget before the general election. The board’s review is focused on identifying other parts of the proposed spending plan that can be reduced to comply with the tax-cap limit.
The board is expected to continue the budget review at its Dec. 8 meeting, when officials plan to determine the reductions and make decisions about the services and purchases affected.
