The Mars Area Board of School Directors approved a 2025-2026 Proposed Final General Fund Budget of $65,399,802 with a 1.000 millage increase. This proposal is 4.26% or $2,674,726 higher than the current budget of $62,725,076 and requires the use of $1,399,353 of fund balance to balance the budget. It is common for the District to use fund balance to balance the budget because historically a deficit is rarely realized and typically the District ends each year with revenues exceeding expenses. The budgeted deficit is 2.1% of budgeted expenditures. In order to produce a balanced budget without using the fund balance, the District would have to further reduce staffing, negatively impacting programs, and/or raise the millage rate beyond the proposed 1.000 mills. This is not recommended, as, historically, the District generates more revenue and incurs fewer expenses than budgeted.

The proposed 1.000 millage increase is a targeted increase. This increase will serve as a placeholder for the future debt service payments needed to fund the addition at the Mars Area Elementary School. The estimated project cost of slightly less than $24M will require approximately $1,130,000 in debt service payments. The remaining funding for the anticipated debt service payment will be included in the 2026-2027 budget.

The allocation of the tentative 2025-2026 revenue budget of $64,000,449 is local revenues of $46,842,145 (73.2%), state revenues of $16,873,170 (26.4%) and federal revenues of $285,134 (0.4%). The budgeted revenue increase of $2,229,569 is primarily due to a $1.7M increase in local revenues. The ongoing growth in the District continues to be the source of the local revenue increase with current & interim real estate taxes, earned income taxes and realty transfer taxes accounting for $43,985,923 of the budgeted revenues and 86% of the increase in local revenue or $1,480,768.

The District’s proposed 2025-2026 budget preserves the integrity of its educational programs, while remaining sensitive to the increased financial strain on taxpayers. The Board and Administration strived to find balance between academic priorities and cost-saving efforts. As the communities of Adams and Middlesex Townships continue to grow, the impact of that growth is realized at the District level with increases in revenue from real estate taxes, earned income taxes and real estate transfer taxes. On the flipside, the growth also brings with it increases in costs and student enrollment. Increased enrollment has led to the need to add new staffing positions the past few years in an effort to maintain class sizes as well as to address other increases including the need for building additions to accommodate the growth.

 The budget was prepared with input from many stakeholders using primarily a zero-based budgeting approach. There are a number of categories that comprise the $65.4M budget with just 6 categories accounting for 93.6% of the budget. These include: 

It is important to note that the 2025-2026 employee salaries budget of $27.2M is a $787,816 increase. This represents a 3% budget increase. The salary budget includes the addition of a new Director of Safety & Security position and two new paraprofessional positions for the autistic support program at the Centennial School.  Also included are the retirements of 6 teachers, 2 custodians, 1 secretary and 1 administrator.  With the exception of 2 elementary and 2 secondary teaching positions, all other positions have replacement staff included in the budget. Also included in this budget are contracted salary increases, a 24.82% increase in the payment in lieu of insurance for staff opting out of the district health care plan, a stipend for the assistant principal at the Elementary School and a long term substitute for her open teaching position as well as anticipated lateral salary scale movement for teachers.

The employee benefits budget of $18.4M includes a $1.5M increase, or 8.9%. This increase is due to an increase of $1,164,845 in employee health insurance premiums resulting from a 24.82% increase in rates for 2025-2026 along with a $60,006 increase in social security contributions and a $271,8621 increase in retirement contributions resulting from the increase in salaries.

This proposed budget continues to move the District forward in a fiscally responsible way, while addressing important needs that face our schools as we move into the 2025-2026 School Year. These needs include:   

• Continuation of existing educational programs
• Purchasing new Math curriculum for Grades K-12
• Purchasing curriculum for new High School AP Research Course
• Purchasing additional textbooks due to grown in the district for Grade 2-12
• Funding a projected $123K increase in Cyber Charter School Tuition as the district has seen an increase in the number of special education students choosing this educational option
• Funding a transfer to capital projects of $300K
• The inclusion of $123K in budgetary reserve as a contingency for possible additional bus runs due to student growth

Other budget highlights include:

• $196K reduction in professional services primarily from the transition from the hybrid school police force to a police department staffed with District employed School Police Officers
• $421K increase in student transportation services attributed to established contract increases as well as new contracts for transporting of students to private and parochial schools
• $128K increase in anticipated energy costs (natural gas & electricity)
• $553K increase in debt service payments representing the new debt service incurred to partially fund the addition at Mars Area Elementary School
• $537K decrease in equipment purchases as the requests were prioritized and necessary ones were moved to the capital expenditures budget for 2025-2026

The proposed 2025-2026 Mars Area School District General Fund Budget is posted on the District’s website, www.marsk12.org. The Board is scheduled to adopt the final budget at its Regular Meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. All board meetings are open to the public.

 

The following presentation offers an overview of the PROPOSED 2025-2026 Mars Area School District General Fund Budget:

Questions/Comments

Questions or comments regarding the budget and/or District finances may be submitted to Mars Area School Board via e-mail at [email protected]; the District's online form at https://www.marsk12.org/apps/form/form.MARSSD.qox76fY.iB; or at any public Board meeting.