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The Bethel School Board voted unanimously Wednesday to pass the district’s 2025-26 budget of $164.2 million, a reduction of $6.4 million from last year, which will result in the district cutting at least 12 staff positions through attrition.
The district is facing the same problems other local school districts are seeing: declining enrollment, loss of federal COVID grants and increased costs, Bethel Superintendent Kraig Sproles said in a May 12 budget committee meeting. Bethel is also seeing an increase in children with special needs and insufficient state funding to keep up with the associated costs.
“We want to control what we can control, which is largely spending,” Sproles said in the meeting. “We want to be tight with our controls so we can avoid impacts for students.”
Spending down reserves
Last year, Bethel School District spent $900,000 in reserves. For the coming school year, the board voted to spend $1 million more…