The Avon Grove School District, like many other school districts across the state, will be facing a difficult budgeting process as officials develop a spending plan for 2026-2027.

When the Avon Grove School Board and the community got its first look at the preliminary budget for 2026-2027, the numbers suggested that a large tax increase could be necessary. The initial preliminary budget totaled $127,561,463, and included a preliminary tax increase of 4 percent to balance the spending plan.

For the current fiscal year, Avon Grove is working with a budget of approximately $120.7 million so the year-to-year increase in spending amounts to about $6.8 million.

Eric Willey, the school district’s assistant business manager, emphasized that the administrative team would work with the school board throughout the budgeting process to reduce the size of the tax increase as much as possible.

There are a number of factors impacting the budget. Avon Grove saw higher-than-expected expenditures for professional services provided by Personal Care Assistants based on specific student needs. Tuition payments to other schools, especially the Avon Grove Charter School, have also gone up because of increased enrollment of Avon Grove School District students in those schools. Avon Grove is also seeing costs rise for electric and natural gas utilities, and AP exam costs.

Meanwhile, Avon Grove’s local revenues are down by 2.24 percent, reflecting the 2025–2026 allocation of pass-through federal revenues and a higher-than-normal amount of uncollected taxes.

One positive impact on the school district budget is that state revenues to the school district are up by 9.41 percent as a result of an increase in the Basic Education Subsidy and a larger-than-budgeted Ready to Learn block grant secured by the district.

The Avon Grove School District will likely need to dip into its fund balance to pay for the operations for the 2026-2027 school year, and in the preliminary budget approximately $8.7 million from this source is being used to balance the spending plan. Officials would no doubt like to reduce that figure as well.

At a recent meeting, Willey said that there are still a lot of unknowns related to Avon Grove’s 2026-2027 budget. Gov. Josh Shapiro recently unveiled a proposed state budget, but it will take several months for that spending plan to be finalized so that school districts have a clearer picture of their Basic Education Subsidies. Avon Grove’s investment returns will change based on federal funds rate changes. Federal funding for schools is also still uncertain for the year ahead. The Avon Grove School District is also in the process of renegotiating several large contacts, including contracts with the Avon Grove Education Association and with the confidential staff. Negotiations on new transportation contracts are being worked on as well. 

The school district’s Committee of the Whole, which includes the entire school board as well as district officials, will take an extended look at the budget’s expenditures during a meeting on March 10. In April, the Committee of the Whole meeting will look at the district’s capital budget. A vote on a proposed final budget is scheduled for the school board’s meeting on April 23, and the final budget is slated to be adopted on June 4.

District officials are also taking other steps to prepare for the 2026-2027 school year. The district’s Education Committee is working on the new district calendars, textbook adoption previews are underway, and the course selection handbook is being worked on.