BAINBRIDGE – On Monday night, the Bainbridge-Guilford Board of Education adopted their proposed budget for the 2026-27 school year, with an overall increase of 5.38 percent. They are asking for a tax increase of 1.59 percent.

The district faced some difficult budget decisions this year. Forced to tackle a $1 million budget gap, the district worked to close the gap without disrupting student services. “We haven’t faced a situation like this in a number of years,” said Superintendent Tim Ryan. He explained that health insurance costs and spending on special education services both increased this year, contributing to the gap.

Ryan explained that health insurance costs increased by $750,000, while special education costs were up $400,000 this year.

“We try to be fiscally responsible. But the increase in special education combined with health insurance and our low tax cap created the gap.”

“With a tax cap of 1.59 percent, we’re only able to raise $118,000 in new money with the tax levy.” Knowing that they would not be able to simply raise taxes to alleviate this situation, Ryan said the district had to dig in to find ways to close the budget. “Ultimately, we cut three positions, mainly through attrition. We also took $675,000 from the fund balance. With that we were able to close the gap.”

The board of education is proposing a budget of $26,936,072 for the 2026-27 school year.

Despite the loss of three teachers, Ryan said the district will see no significant change in class size. “The cuts don’t effect programs or students,” he explained. A smaller incoming kindergarten class means that the district can have less sections of kindergarten next year. Ryan was confident the district could move people into the necessary roles to make up for the three lost positions. He added that there will be no cuts to programs for students as a result of the budget.

“I think the board of education and the staff feel good about the proposed budget,” Ryan said. The district will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on May 7th to present the budget to the community. Ryan will also be presenting the budget to the Chamber of Commerce, the Roary and to the staff. District voters will go to the polls on May 19th to vote on the proposed budget.