Marshall Draft FY 2027 Budget Projects $845,478 Spending Gap

Marshall Board of Education | August 13, 2026

Article Summary: Superintendent Ross presented a draft FY 2027 budget to the Marshall C.U.S.D. C-2 Board of Education on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, showing $16,996,087.93 in anticipated revenue against $17,841,566.05 in anticipated expenditures across nine funds — a projected gap of $845,478.12, with the Education Fund accounting for roughly two-thirds of it.

FY 2027 Draft Budget Key Points:

Education Fund: $13,266,787.93 revenue against $13,809,596.28 in expenditures, a projected $542,808.35 shortfall.

Capital Projects shows the second-largest gap at $330,365, with $124,125 in revenue against $454,490 in expenditures.

Three funds are projected in the black: Debt Service (+$18,549.09), Work Cash (+$119,841) and nothing else; Work Cash shows $0.00 in budgeted expenditures.

No vote was taken. The agenda listed the item as a discussion, and a budget hearing is scheduled for the regular September board meeting.

MARSHALL — The Marshall C.U.S.D. C-2 Board of Education on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, reviewed a draft FY 2027 budget that anticipates spending $845,478.12 more than the district expects to take in across all funds, with Superintendent Ross attributing a projected revenue decline to the expiration and reduction of federal grant money.

Ross discussed the draft with the board and highlighted anticipated revenue and expenditures in each fund. The agenda listed the item as “Discussion of FY 2027 Budget” under Old Business, and the minutes record no motion and no vote. Ross told the board the budget hearing is scheduled for the regular board meeting in September.

Fund-by-Fund Figures

The draft, labeled “FY 27 Original DRAFT” and dated 8/13/2026, sets out nine funds:

Education: $13,266,787.93 revenue; $13,809,596.28 expenditures; -$542,808.35

Operations & Maintenance: $1,091,747.00; $1,104,446.98; -$12,699.98

Debt Service: $755,084.00; $736,534.91; +$18,549.09

Transportation: $817,414.00; $832,525.14; -$15,111.14

IMRF: $440,373.00; $474,968.74; -$34,595.74

Capital Projects: $124,125.00; $454,490.00; -$330,365.00

Work Cash: $119,841.00; $0.00; +$119,841.00

Tort: $258,375.00; $265,870.00; -$7,495.00

Fire PLS: $122,341.00; $163,134.00; -$40,793.00

Total: $16,996,087.93; $17,841,566.05; -$845,478.12

The Education Fund, the district’s largest, carries the largest projected deficit at $542,808.35. The Capital Projects Fund shows the second-largest gap, with budgeted expenditures of $454,490 against $124,125 in anticipated revenue.

Federal Grant Money Cited

The minutes attribute the anticipated revenue decline to the end of many of the extra federal grants and to decreased funding for remaining federal grants, naming Title I Reading as an example. The record states it is Ross’s goal to get the Education Fund budget in balance over the next two years.

The minutes do not identify which federal grants have ended, how much money the district received from them, or what specific steps the administration intends to take to close the Education Fund gap. No multi-year plan, revenue projection or line-item detail accompanies the summary table in the public record.

Context and Next Steps

School district budget hearings generally precede a board’s adoption of a final annual spending plan, and the draft presented Thursday is explicitly labeled an original draft rather than a final document. Figures in it may change before September.

The draft was presented in the same meeting at which the board committed to four bid amounts totaling $409,500 for upgrades at the MJHS Forsythe Performing Arts Center. The minutes identify Health Life Safety funds, a portion of a school maintenance grant and $50,000 from a foundation as sources for parts of that project; the record does not connect those costs to any fund line in the FY 2027 draft, and no such connection should be assumed.

One labeling point bears noting for readers comparing documents: while the table is titled as the FY 2027 original draft and the narrative describes it as the FY 27 budget, a stub cell in the table’s header row reads “FY26 Budget (All).” Each column’s figures sum exactly to the stated totals in both the revenue and expenditure rows, which is consistent with the nine columns being the nine FY 2027 fund projections.