Cape school district approves final FY 2026 budget

The Cape Henlopen School District Board of Education approved the district’s final budget for Fiscal Year 2026, plus its monthly financial report for December and third-quarter financial position report for the year, during a Jan. 22 meeting.

According to the final budget, the district is projected to end the fiscal year with a net positive of about $15,000, though this number could change.

Both the total revenue and total expenditures projections exceeded initial estimates. Revenue exceeded the initial by nearly $2.14 million, while expenditures exceeded the initial by about $2.12 million.

The December report shows the district is over budget in numerous spending areas, including technology and computer software, curriculum materials, Cape’s dual enrollment program, its furniture reserve, and new teacher orientation and mentoring.

“There were areas that were over budget, and that was because of us having preliminary estimates and then getting better numbers as we transition out of using federal funds,” said Finance Director Oliver Gumbs. “There were a lot of things that we bought out of [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief] that now we have to fund locally, and we're getting a better hold, better estimates, on what those things were.”

This was the district’s first year without federal ESSER funds, which were distributed to the Delaware Department of Education in 2020 and 2021 to address the impact of COVID on pre-K through grade 12 education. The funding was distributed to districts and charter schools throughout the state to enhance learning, and support the social and emotional needs of students, teachers and families.

Now that the district no longer has ESSER funds, it must figure out how to use and reallocate its other available funds to pay for certain things, like tutoring programs, staffing and professional development, mental health resources, and technology and digital access. As it navigates this transition, it will be able to make better, more informed budget estimates.

Additionally, many of the changes in the final budget are based on appropriations from the district’s final Sept. 30 unit count. This unit count determines state funding for the fiscal year.

“Some things were over-budgeted, but we made an adjustment and took the money from another bucket to cover this bucket, so it wasn’t an increase in the budget in most areas,” Gumbs said. “It’s just an adjustment to make the expenditures in the budget match up a little better.”

There were also some expenditure adjustments, which are expenditures that weren’t captured on the original reports because of the type of transaction. Tuition expenditures, for example, are done by a transfer rather than an actual document that would count as an expenditure. So, the expenditure adjustments are added to show they happened.

To make the district’s finances more easily digestible for the public, Gumbs includes a summary of the key highlights from that month in the monthly financial reports.

“It goes back to transparency,” said Jason Hale, the district’s director of operations.

All of the district’s financial reports and budget documents can be found at capehenlopenschools.com/departments/finance.

Aside from the ESSER funds, Gumbs said the district has not been impacted this year by the loss of any other federal funds.

The final budget and financial reports were reviewed in depth by the Citizen Budget Oversight Committee before being brought to the board for approval. This committee, made up of community volunteers, is dedicated to promoting fiscal transparency and community involvement.