The CAL School Board met Tuesday and set a public hearing date for the district’s 2026-2027 fiscal year budget. The hearing will be held March 20th at 4:00 p.m.
The proposed property tax rate is $9.66 per $1,000 of taxable valuation, down from the current $9.75 rate. Despite the decrease, total revenue is expected to increase as rising operating costs continue to outpace state funding, requiring the district to rely more heavily on its cash reserve levy.
Board members also discussed whole grade sharing tuition percentages, operational and shared positions, and classroom configurations for next year. Superintendent Todd Lettow tells RadioOnTheGo News that upper elementary grades are projected to be larger, while current fifth- and sixth-grade classes are among the smallest in the building.
“We are just taking a look at how can we best reconfigure it so the kids aren’t so crowded. So, you know you kind of come up with ideas and I share that with the staff and they kind of chew on that a little bit and come up with more ideas, different ideas, better ideas. So we are in the process of kind of getting that all together and then we’ll touch bases again with the staff, you know, and see if we can kind of find something that works best for everybody. So just wanted to update the board this week to say, we’re probably going to be moving some things around, but exactly what we’re doing, it’s not quite finalized.”
The discussion also included locker assignments, relocating the teacher workroom and strengthening STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) programming.
Link to the full minutes here
