Budget Cap and Open Enrollment Information and Public Hearing
We are holding a public hearing on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, to present and discuss the Budget Cap and Open Enrollment Warrant Articles. We are required by law to hold these public hearings. As part of the process, we want to provide some helpful information about the warrant articles and answer questions that may be circulating in the community and online.
Budget Cap Petitioned Article
There is a warrant article that was submitted by petition that seeks to adopt a budget cap. That warrant article and the budget cap will be discussed at the public hearing on Wednesday. At the deliberative session on February 7, 2026, the petitioned warrant article was discussed at length. District Legal Counsel was present and provided some guidance and legal analysis of the petitioned article. To provide everyone in the community with the same information, that legal guidance is reiterated below.
For budget caps, state law requires the warrant article to reference a cost per pupil dollar as a dollar amount at the time of voting. This requirement is intended to ensure that the voters know exactly what they are approving when they are voting. The budget cap law specifically states that, in the first year that the budget cap is in place, the per pupil cost “adopted in the warrant article” is the amount that is used to calculate the budget cap amount. The petitioned budget cap article that the District received did not provide a per pupil cost as a specific dollar amount as required by the mandatory language in the state law. Rather, the petitioned article refers to, “the 2025-2026 fiscal year per pupil cost…”
We were advised that the wording in the petitioned article does not conform to the language required by state law. If passed, that wording will affect the validity of the warrant article even if it does pass. We have been advised by legal counsel that if passed, this warrant will likely be unenforceable because there is no defined dollar value attached to it that follows the mandatory language in the law. And, if it does pass and we try to enforce it, it may open the school district up to legal uncertainty and lawsuits.
Much of this was explained at the Deliberative Session on February 7, 2026, and there was an attempt to amend the petitioned article to become more clearly compliant with the law. That amendment did not pass.
We highly encourage you to attend the public hearing on February 18, 2026, at the SRVRTC Goodrich room at 6:30 PM. This information will be critical to help you decide on how you want to vote.
Open Enrollment
In a recent post (Clarifying the Open Enrollment Warrant Article), we explained our thought process behind the Open Enrollment Warrant Article. We also provided an explanation at the Deliberative Session on Saturday, February 7th. The upcoming public hearing will give us the opportunity to explain the article in more detail, and give you the opportunity to comment on it and ask questions, just like in many other public hearings. We can’t change the warrant article (that language was locked in at the deliberative session), but we can answer your questions and hear what you have to say.
Right now, the open enrollment legislation that’s on the table at the state house doesn’t change what we need to do because there is no way of knowing if the current law will change, and what the change would be. Under the current law, we still need to hold a public hearing about our warrant article, and we need to vote on it on March 10. If new legislation is signed into law, we can talk about what that new law means at that point. And if it doesn’t become law, then we want to have our own rules about open enrollment in place.