Superintendent's Message

Each year, we invest considerable time with the Board of Education to craft our annual budget, aiming to realign priorities for the upcoming school year to address student and program needs, cultivate a safe and inclusive campus environment, and deliver high-quality learning experiences to every student all while remaining mindful of our responsibility to local property taxpayers.

Much like last year, our school district continues to grapple with challenging inflationary trends, substantial hikes in healthcare, utility, and retirement costs, and uncertainty surrounding fully funded Foundation Aid from the state, which is pivotal in mitigating the local tax burden on our property owners.

Over the last several months, we made significant progress to ensure that we are presenting a responsible spending plan that bolsters academics, supports social-emotional learning, sustains extra-curricular activities, and maintains our facilities and staff.

We intend to achieve our goals with a spending plan that continues our trend of staying below the tax cap threshold of the district and current inflationary figures while prudently managing the use of reserve funds to support the budget.

This year, voters will be presented with ballot propositions to continue the scheduled replacement of older buses, allocate funding to our community libraries (a measure that is separate from the school budget), and establish a Transportation Capital Reserve Fund. 

This fund, supported by year-end budget surpluses, will facilitate future acquisition of electric school buses/vehicles, transportation infrastructure enhancements, and more.

Building a budget involves input from many different stakeholders. Those interested in sharing their thoughts on the budget may attend our annual Budget Hearing at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8, in the Board of Education Room (room 103) at Midlakes Elementary School. 

We also welcome everyone to learn more about our Annual Vote taking place on May 21, in the May edition of the Midlakes Journal, and on our website at Midlakes.org/AnnualVote.

—   Nick Ganster, Superintendent