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Preliminary Budget Update - July 13, 2026
The New State Funding Landscape The Wyoming Legislature’s recent "recalibration" of the school funding model (SF081) created a rigid framework that presents significant non-instructional challenges. While it strictly funds the "Instructional Silo", allowing for the largest teacher salary increase in 15 years and supporting the new K-12 Literacy Act, the State provided nearly zero additional funding for departments outside the classroom.
The Funding Gap & Deficit Mitigation This legislative pressure is compounded by local challenges:
Declining Enrollment: A drop of 94 students in Average Daily Membership (ADM) reduces our state funding by approximately $1,200,000.
The State cut our activities budget by $241,384. This makes a tough situation worse, because the district was already spending $400,000 of its own general funds every year just to keep our sports and activities running.
In addition, the State will be recapturing 50% of the interest earned in our General Fund totaling an additional $275,000 annual budget deficit. These are revenues we have traditionally used to subsidize athletics, activities, extra duty stipends and food service.
To manage these deficits across the district, we have identified $1,215,347 in non-instructional budget reductions, including the reduction of one principal position, several custodial, maintenance, and food service roles, and a consolidation of central administration. Specifically, we have reduced our Central Administration Staff from 28 down to 23 over the past two years. This 18% staffing reduction represents the greatest single department or school budget restructuring.
Activities & Extra-Duty Recommendations (2026–27) To help offset this funding loss, the district identified $245,242 in savings through a combination of reductions and reallocation of extra-duty stipends.
Program Realignment: Discontinue Indoor Track, Spring Tennis, and Spring Golf (fully maintaining Spring Track, Fall Tennis, and Fall Golf). No sport or activity has been eliminated.
Personnel Efficiencies & Reductions: Decouple coaching stipends from the teacher salary schedule (grandfathering current coaches). To achieve maximum efficiency, a total of 31 coaching and sponsorship stipends have been reduced or eliminated across 19 activities and schools, which includes 16 specific coaching stipends spread across 8 sports.
Strategic Growth: Add one assistant coach to both GRHS and LMS Girls' Wrestling to support record participation and ensure Title IX compliance.
A Loss of Local Control While we celebrate the classroom investment, the State has significantly restricted our school board’s ability to make local choices. By siloing funds and restricting the use of our local reserves, including funds saved since pre-1997, the State has effectively stripped our ability to address unique Green River needs with local dollars.
Next Steps Even with these challenges, SWCSD#2 remains committed to offering nearly 50 different extracurricular activities, more than larger districts in our region. We invite the community to research our legislators WyoFile Election Guide 2026 and advocate with state lawmakers WYO Legislative Contact Site regarding non-instructional funding. Our finalized budget will be presented, July 14th, for final board approval.
Thank you for your support and for your continued dedication to the success of our Green River students.