Summit Taps Reserves to Shield Classrooms from Benefit Cost Spikes

Standard disclaimer – the preliminary budget numbers we’re looking at for Summit can change before it’s adopted and like the other analysis we’ve conducted we’re using the ’24-’25 ACFR, ’25-26 revised and ’26-27 preliminary.

Summit School’s total operating budget moves from $81.5M (’24-25 actuals) to $86.99M (’25-’26 revised) to $89.67M (’26-’27 proposed) and reveals a $2.68M year-over-year increase (+3.08%).

Tax levy increases ~5% (+$3.75M) moving from $76.12M to $79.87M and outpaces the increase we’re seeing in the operating budget. District notes additional revenue is needed to cover rising costs “especially related to health care,” and it remains within the adjusted tax levy cap. Remember the cap doesn’t throw a ceiling over costs connected to health benefits.

State aid drops ~4.5% from $5.88M to $5.62M. Extraordinary Aid goes down by $110K, Special Education Aid drops by ~$109K, and Security Aid drops by ~$43K.

Summit saw declines in federal aid and grants as well with total grants and entitlements dropping ~22% from ~$1.07M to ~$839K. Federal aid went down harder with a 25% drop from ~$931K to ~698K. If we go back to the good old days of ’24-25 we see that total grants and entitlements were at ~4.3M which can make where things are at now feel concerning.

Regular instruction held steady (+152K) hovering at the $29M mark. It moves from $28.75M to $28.91M as teacher salaries increased across the main grade bands – grades 1-5 up 2.48%, grades 6-8 up 4.30% and grades 9-12 up 1.20%. The overall regular-instruction number is held down in part by a large drop in general supplies, which falls ~$477K.

Special education comes up as one driver as it rises by nearly 7% to ~9M (+571K) – notes indicate cost increases are tied to student need.

Tuition goes up $2.63M to $2.83M (+$198K/7.5%) with the biggest line as tuition to private schools for students with disabilities (in-state) which increases from $1.67M to $2M (+$329K/ 19.67%).

As we’ve seen with every other budget we’ve looked at this year, the biggest hike comes from total unallocated benefits which move from ~ $18M to ~$20M, (+$2.39M /13.24%). Health benefits alone rise from $13.92M to $16.51M which amounts to a ~$2.6M increase (+18.56%).

Moving onto operations and maintenance; required maintenance drops from $1.32M to $1.04M (-21.06%) ; total plant operations also declines ~3% from $7.39M to $7.16M. Custodial services are pretty much flat but energy costs go up; natural gas rising 10% and electricity rising 5.2%. Security also moves up a big chunk, from $207,597 to $259,503, a 25% increase.

Transportation was one of the few areas that fell in cost, dropping ~2.7% from $1.99M to $1.94M while capital outlay drops sharply, from $1.71M to $1.16M, a decrease of about $550K (32.24%).

Reserves are also part of the story with legal anticipated to draw down from $2.5M to $0, capital reserve drops from ~ $4.2M to ~$3.4M – the budget includes an $850K withdrawal from capital reserve. Maintenance reserve also dips a little due to a $50K withdrawal.

So Summit appears to be putting the focus on preserving student centered lines but benefits – especially health benefits – are overwhelming this budget and driving a ~5% levy increase.

So Summit’s 2026–27 proposed budget looks like the ‘lets hold it together people’ story we’ve been seeing everywhere else.

Source Material