Elkhart Community Schools’ budget will look a bit smaller next year. The total 2027 budget adopted by the school board Wednesday is just over $148 million, about $23 million less than the one the board approved for 2026.
This comes after the school corporation undertook a major cost-cutting effort over the summer, which included school consolidation. This comes after the school corporation undertook a major cost-cutting effort over the summer, including school consolidation.
"We’ve cut office administrators, office staff in the buildings, some teachers, as a result of the consolidations," Chief Financial Officer Erica Purvis told the school board during a budget presentation in September.
The school corporation says 35 elementary teaching positions have been cut, with additional reductions possible at the secondary level. Administrative positions were reduced by five at the district level and 10 at the building office level, while total of 31 classified staff positions have been eliminated.
Purvis said those cost reductions total almost $8.8 million. The rest of the budget reduction comes from bringing it in line with what the school corporation is actually able to spend.
"Our ability is going to be based on our cash revenue and our cash balance," Purvis told board members. "Since we have eaten through a lot of the cash balances, we don’t have much to spare there, so we really will have to adjust this, if the revenue comes in much lower than that."
While costs continue to rise, declining enrollment has limited the amount of education fund money the district gets to pay teachers, and new property tax credits impact operations fund revenues for things like buses and building maintenance.
Elkhart Community Schools holds the broadcast license for WVPE.
