Sweet Home School Board members on Monday, May 12, approved a budget totaling $68.8 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
The district Budget Committee, consisting Monday of School Board members Mike Adams, Amanda Carter, Jim Gourley, Dale Keene and Mary Massey, along with former School Board members Mike Reyolds and Kevin Hill, approved the budget proposal earlier in the day and recommended its passage to the board.
Present during the board meeting were Adams, Carter, Gourley, Keene and Massey, along with Floyd Neuschwander and Jenna Northern. The approval vote was unanimous.
Business Manager Kevin Strong emphasized that the actual projected spending level will be $49.5 million. He noted that the total budget figure includes all savings the district has set aside for future needs, contingencies, transfers and other machinations that are not immediately evident.
“Oftentimes, people just see that headline number and the whole purpose of the budget summary is to show what makes up that number,” he said.
2025-26 Budget Highlights
This year’s total includes:
- $1.8 million to operate the school district’s nutrition services program, as well as the summer lunch program and meals for the summer Fire School held at Sweet Home High School.
Supt. Terry Martin reported to the Budget Committee, which included “Our Nutrition Services staff typically serves over 200,000 lunches and over $100,000 breakfasts to students during the school year,” noting that those free meals are provided through the Community Eligibility Provision program, which is a state program that allows districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students without the burden of certifying students for meal benefits.
- $1.7 million that is passed through the district to the Sweet Home Charter School.
- $2.8 million in Student Investment Accounts and High School Success funds, which goes to fund mental health, Career and Technical Education (CTE), elimination of pay-to-play fees, class size reductions and strengthen overall student support.
- $800,000 put in reserve in the event the district is awarded matching grants durin the fiscal year.
- $1.6 million in student activity funds for use by student organizations.
- $500,000 for swimming pool operations and maintenance.
- $2.1 million for debt service on the district’s outstanding general obligation bonds.
- $2.4 million for debt service on the district’s outstanding PERS pension bonds.
- $2.3 million for student transportation.
- $300,000 for potential bus replacements, which Martin said is only used if necessary.
- $2 million for a one-time payment to PERS to reduce the district’s PERS unfunded liability. The unfunded liability is the difference between the total amount of money the state’s PERS fund is obligated to pay out in pension benefits and the amount of money it actually has – an amount estimated to be around $28 billion, for which public entities, including school districts, are on the hook.
Martin said the school district plans to apply for a 25% match to help pay that liability from the state’s Employer Incentive Fund, which uses revenue from sports betting to provide the match for districts that open or increase a side account with EIF. Sweet Home successfully applied for that grant in 2018, Martin said.
- $1.8 million allocated through federal grant programs for designated purposes.
- $29.3 million for General Fund day-to-day operations and extra-curricular activities.
Both Martin and Strong emphasized that the budget is a spending limit for each fund, and actual spending is typically well below the budgeted amount.
Introducing the budget, Martin reminded committee members that the district is focused on four core areas in planning: outstanding achievement, producing thriving citizens, creating and sustaining a thriving community and providing “safe, welcoming facilities and services.”
“Through planning and responsible stewardship, this budget reinforces our focus on academic excellence, college and career readiness, and strong partnerships with families and the community,” he said, adding that “we remain dedicated to providing safe, secure and welcoming learning environments that support our students’ educational outcomes and overall well-being.”
In the upcoming school year, the district will implement, as high school graduation requirements, courses in personal financial management skills and career readiness, Martin said. He said the goal of the classes is to help students make “informed financial decisions” and “well-informed decisions about their futures.”
“By integrating these courses into the curriculum, Sweet Home High School is ensuring that students graduate with the knowledge and skills necessary for financial independence and career success,” he said.
Martin said that the district has been awarded $80,000 in grant funding for a “comprehensive” assessment of district facilities and to update its Long-Range Facility Plan. He said the community will be encouraged to get involved in that process and that more information on that will be forthcoming.
He and Strong said Sweet Home may be able to make needed improvements to the high school with a $12 million matching grant from the state “without raising the tax rate.”
They said the school lacks security – it has more than 40 entrances that allow “unsecured access” for students and the public, and most of its classroom sections are flat-roofed, which was economical when they were built in the 1970s, but “has not held up well in western Oregon’s climate,” Martin said.
Other needs are refurbishment for the auditorium foyer, band and choir classrooms, CTE facilities, and “we would also like to add a bus loop at the high school to improve traffic flow and safety,” he said.
The district would also like to install all-weather surfaces for softball, baseball and soccer fields to “increase field utilization,” he said.
The goal is to make improvements that would last 75 years, he said.
Martin also told committee members that district staff have incorporated federal funding in the budget plan, “understanding that recent actions by some Oregon leaders could put this funding at risk by challenging federal requirements related to nondiscrimination.”
“We remain hopeful that reasoned decision-making will ultimately prevail. Our priority in K-12 education must remain on advancing academic achievement for all students, rather than endorsing initiatives that may undermine family values, create division or promote ideological agendas.”
He and Strong noted that the district’s PERS contribution rates will increase “substantially” on July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year – although they said Sweet Home’s will remain lower than other districts’. That is because 20-plus years ago, the School Board “strategically” borrowed funds and invested the proceeds, which paid off in lower PERS costs for the district.
In view of that, they said, the district has recently opted to invest those savings in long-term maintenance and to bolster its General Fund.
“These decisions not only reinforce our financial stability but also afford us the flexibility to address future one-time needs with one-time resources,” Martin told the committee.