The Shawano School Board was pleased to hear that an anticipated $1 million budget deficit from the recently completed 2025-26 school year would actually only be $260,000, but it raised questions about why it was necessary to make $1.77 million in cuts for the 2026-27 school year.
In the budget approved in October 2025, the school district estimated that revenues for the district would be just above $33.6 million, while the expenses came in just shy of $34.6 million. The district reported at the time that there would be a deficit of $982,559, which would be covered by the district’s ample fund balance, which stood at $10.3 million in February.
During a report at the July 27 board meeting, business services director Bryan Kadlec reported that revenues received were about $150,000 less than originally projected. However, expenses so far are around $33.7 million, showing cuts or expenses that were less than anticipated. No specifics were presented on how the expenses were down.
Kadlec noted that the district is still closing out its books for the school year, and there are still bills and some revenue that have not landed in the district’s coffers yet, he said.
“This is where we are as of today, but we are not done,” Kadlec said. “We are not done, because we are continuing to accrue both revenue and expenses. We actually have some things coming in through the month of August, as well.”
Kadlec noted that auditors are at the schools conducting the annual audit, so the district should have a more concrete picture of the district’s expenses versus revenues when the audit report comes out.
“Overall, the story is that we have less revenue, but we also have less expenses,” he said. “It’s getting closer to reality.”
Board member Bobbi Lemerond questioned why the district had to cut so much out of the upcoming budget, which is expected to be approved in late October after the district finds out how much state school aid is expected to go to Shawano and what the final enrollment numbers will be.
“All the cuts we made to level things off for next year, are we still projecting that big of a deficit for next year?” Lemerond said.
Kadlec said that the preliminary budget approved by the board in June was balanced. Lemerond noted that the current 2025-26 numbers show that budget is close to being balanced.
“I know $260 (thousand) is a lot, but it’s close,” she said. “We made a lot of cuts (for next year) that we may not need to have made.”
Kadlec said the 2026-27 budget is not final until the aid and enrollment numbers are clear.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
