Board approves preliminary 2026-27 district budget

CLINTONVILLE – The Clintonville Board of Education approved a preliminary 2026-27 budget for its general fund (Fund 10) when it met June 8.
The preliminary budget is a balanced budget of $20,587,442, which is close to what the district had forecasted when it presented operational referendum information to the public prior to the spring election in April.
When reviewing the budget, Board President Ben Huber asked for clarification as to why it included a projected 56% tax levy increase when compared to the 2025-26 budget.
“That is because we passed the referendum and we are getting that additional tax levy for the referendum,” said Jessica Holtz, director of Finance with CESA 8’s Financial Services, who the district contracts with for financial services.
She said an increase in the tax levy does not mean property taxes will increase. She added that the district doesn’t have all the figures from the state yet to complete the budget. Some of those figures won’t be available until October, so the preliminary budget will be updated as those figures are received by the district.

“We’re going to look through it also throughout the summer and see if there are ways we can save even more, based on what was presented,” Holtz said.

Referendum funds
Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn told the board that roughly $1.3 million of the operational referendum funds were used to balance the preliminary budget.
Referendum funds will also be used to hire additional personnel for the district. He reminded the board that it approved hiring a math interventionist. Interviews have been completed for that position, but Kuhn said the administrative team does not feel any of the candidates are qualified for what the district needs.
“Worst case scenario we could look at doing it internally with overloads from our math teachers,” Kuhn said.

Kuhn said the district also interviewed candidates for an elementary school counselor position that the board had approved. But again, the administrative team felt none of the candidates were qualified for what the district needs.
Referendum funds would also be used for Fund 46 items, such as repairs to the elementary school roof and technology updates for the district.