T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Marshalltown Community School Board member Elizabeth Wise listens to Executive Director of Finance and Operations Randy Denham speak about the certified budget process. During the Monday meeting, Denham told the board the time has come to begin the annual process.

The time of the year to talk about certified school budgets has come. During the regular Monday meeting of the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) Board of Education, Executive Director of Finance and Operations Randy Denham laid out the timeline of the certified budget process.

He said there are two purposes for the certified budget. The first is to meet the required process and timeline of establishing and certifying property tax rates for the 2026-27 school year. The last is to publish the estimated consolidated expenditures of the district’s funds.

“The general fund is the largest of all those funds, and it’s the one that probably gets the most attention, but we are setting the budget for all of our funds for the upcoming year,” Denham said.

Two main pieces of the certified budget puzzle is certified enrollment, which was determined and submitted to the state on Oct. 1; and state supplemental aid (SSA), which has not been set by the state yet.

‘[Gov. Kim Reynolds] gives her condition of the state address, which she did on Jan. 13,” he said. “In her state address, she is recommending a two percent increase for SSA. SSA, by law, does have to be set within the first 30 days of the session, so that will be coming up here soon.”

Denham has not heard whether or not SSA will meet that 30-day deadline, but knows it is a goal of the legislature. However, that has not always been the case, he added.

Assuming there is a two percent SSA increase, there will be a regular program district cost per pupil of $160, from $7,989 to $8,149. The SSA is determined by certified enrollment, and the MCSD had a decrease of 83 students from the previous year.

“Sometimes people assume just because we are getting a 2 percent SSA increase, that means we’re getting two percent more money, and that doesn’t necessarily always correlate,” Denham said. “Because depending on what SSA is, versus an enrollment increase or decrease, your new money may not be as much. Because we had such a heavy enrollment decline last fall, we are actually getting only one percent new money, and because of the decline we are on what’s called a budget guarantee for the upcoming year.”

The “new money” would be $429,832, Denham said.

“Because of the budget guarantee, $246,574 of that is fully funded through property taxes, and that is something we will work through as we get further through the certified budget process,” he said. “That $236,574 could change, depending on where that SSA lands. This is just assuming the two percent recommendation from the governor. We’ve been very fortunate the last several years with SSA increases and how our enrollment has trended. This is the first time we’ve been on the budget guarantee for several years.”

Superintendent Theron Schutte said the only other times were after the 2018 tornado and the 2020 derecho, when there were large enrollment declines.

According to Denham, a budget guarantee means if there is an enrollment decline one year, a district is guaranteed a one percent increase to at least cushion that blow.

“It’s designed as a one-year buffer to ensure you get at least a one year increase of new money, but if you’re a district with consistent years of declining enrollment, that is where things can start to spiral,” he said. .

Schutte said he thinks there is a debate in the legislature of whether or not it would be better funding at that level, so fewer districts are on a budget guarantee or if there is a property tax reform.

Moving forward with a timeline, Denham said a budget certification has to be done by April 30, and two hearings must be held beforehand. The first hearing, set for March 23, will give the public an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments on tax statements. The second hearing on April 6 will give the public the chance to make final comments before the board adopts its budget.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.