Kingsport City Schools Chief Finance Officer David Frye, seated with back to camera in blue shirt to the left, presents the proposed 2025-26 budget to the Board of Education before a 5-0 vote to approve. The General Purpose School Fund is $105,002,300, and combined with three other budgets comes out to $117,797,981.
Kingsport City Schools Chief Finance Officer David Frye, seated with back to camera in blue shirt to the left, presents the proposed 2025-26 budget to the Board of Education before a 5-0 vote to approve. The General Purpose School Fund is $105,002,300, and combined with three other budgets comes out to $117,797,981.
KINGSPORT — Even with a proposed $1 million funding increase from Kingsport leaders, the city school system is still planning to dip into its unrestricted fund balance by slightly more than $1 million.
However, Kingsport City Schools otherwise for fiscal 2025-26 would have had about $2 million to make up by spending cuts and/or spending more fund balance.
“Those are a lot of numbers and a lot of commas,†school board President Melissa Woods said of the budget passed during a two-hour meeting Tuesday evening.
$105 MILLION PLAN DETAILED
The Board of Education voted 5-0 to recommend to the city a 2025-26 General Purpose School Fund budget of $105,002,300, in addition to a School Nutrition Fund budget of $5,633,800, a Federal Projects Fund of $6,028,161 and a School Special Project Fund of $1,133,720.
The general budget is up from the current 2024-25 budget of $98,532,250, according to information presented by Chief Finance Officer David Frye.
On the spending side, it includes 1% cost-of-living and regular step increases for all certified and support staff, as well as a $2,000 state-funded one-time bonus for more than 600 eligible classroom teachers in the public vouchers for private school legislation that passed the General Assembly.
The state also is sending along money to cover benefit costs for those teachers.
Frye said the only “new†positions in the budget, at $196,400, are a deaf interpreter to cost $52,000 and be reimbursed by the state and $144,400 to cover 25% of six Innovative Schools Models Grant teaching position that next year will fall completely on the school system.
In addition, money is included for one-time bonuses for all other school employees not among about 610 eligible classroom teachers, although Frye said details of the amount or amounts of those bonsues have not yet been worked out.
“This voucher money really cost us,†Woods said of giving bonues to employees not covered by the voucher teacher bonus. Frye said that is common plan among school systems statewide.
Of the $1,072,400 in fund balance to be spent, $631,000 is going to give a one-time bonus for all employees not eligible for the $2,000 state-funded teacher bonus, and $300,000 is going to the special education program.
Revenue from Sullivan County sales and property taxes is estimated at about $15.5 million and $15 million, both slightly above current levels.
State revenue through the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act or TISA is up from nearly $19.8 million to $20.5 million in local funding, a 30% match mandated by the TISA, and up from $47.1 million to $48.87 million from the state.
The budget vote Tuesday night came on the heels of the Board of Mayor and Alderman’s Monday draft budget presentation of a city budget that would increase the city contribution to KCS from $11,245,300, the same since 2019-20, to $12,245,300, the first such increase in five years.
That would be a grand total of $117,797,981 for all funds in the school system budgets.
DETAILS FROM OTHER BUDGETS
The nutrition budget is self-funded with no taxpayer subsidy and is keeping free breakfasts and lunches for all students through the CEP or Community Eligibility Program. The budget will dip into $670,000 in unrestricted fund balance from school nutrition.
Board member Todd Golden during the meeting said he is concerned about the costs of CEP. Frye said for 2026-27 school leaders may have to consider backing off CEP for all schools unless high food costs come down, the federal government increases reimbursement and/or the cafeterias don’t sell more a la cart items or “second†meals.
The federal budget is from federal funding, mostly title program funding including $2,480,091 for Title 1 funding for low achieving students in high poverty areas and $1,925,130 for Individuals with Disabilities Act or IDEA Part B. Frye said that is based on current year funding since no new estimates are available, but that it is expected to remain about the same for 2025-26.
The special projects budget includes $825,000 from a Tennessee pre-school grant, $235,000 from a state special education pre-K grant and $53,720 from a truancy intervention grant. The Family Resource Center and Homeless Education Program each get $10,000 from donations.
WHAT’S NEXT
After possible tweaks in revenue estimates, the school budget and rest of the city budget will undergo two BMA readings, with the second a final approval vote.
