Preliminary 2025-2026 LPS budget proposes 7 cent reduction in levy, Board requests community input

June 24, 2025

The Preliminary Proposed 2025-2026 LPS Budget presented to the Lincoln Board of Education Tuesday afternoon includes a 7 cent reduction in the total levy, bringing it to a historic low $1.04 per $100 in property valuation. 

The Lincoln Board of Education held a work session on Tuesday, June 24, to preview the Preliminary Proposed 2025-2026 LPS Budget as presented by Associate Superintendent for Business Affairs Liz Standish. 

“LPS prudently builds the annual budget using a three-year forecast to minimize the negative impact of drastic swings in revenue,” said Standish. “There are several volatile variables outside of our control year over year, and we try to minimize the impact of these shifts and sustain programming by utilizing cash flow.”

Last year, the Board approved a 3 cent levy increase to offset an approximately $32 million drop in state aid. State aid to LPS will increase $10 million in 2025-2026 to $82,566,211. In addition, LPS is conservatively estimating property valuations set by the Lancaster County Assessor will increase approximately 7%.

Building the budget begins each February when LPS staff review every budget line item and look at student enrollment and needs to match staffing levels for each school building. The budget process this year once again focuses on aligning resources with priorities outlined in the 2024-2029 LPS Strategic Plan.

The budget process also takes into account student enrollment growth. Last school year, LPS grew an additional 647 students bringing the total enrollment close to record levels with 42,282 students. Next school year, the enrollment is projected to grow an additional 135 students to 42,417 - shattering the 2019 record of 42,297. It is important to note that in 2023-2024, LPS ranked 211 out of 244 school districts in Nebraska in per pupil spending with $16,052. That is $1,153 under the state average of $17,205 per student.

LPS is preliminarily proposing a 3.63% increase in the expenditure budget to $558,739,610. The majority of the expenditure increase - approximately $18.5 million of the $19.5 million - will go towards salary and benefit increases already approved through the staff negotiation process earlier in the year. 

Staff salaries and benefits make up approximately 89% of the total 2025-2026 proposed budget. Each month, LPS pays approximately 6,500 employees a total of $30 million - money that pumps back into the Lincoln economy through the purchase of goods, services and property taxes.

“What happens during negotiations on salary and benefits with staff really drives our budget decisions,” added Standish. “That along with the priorities outlined in our strategic plan as identified with help from our community guides our conversations about where to direct our resources.”

Other highlights of the 2025-2026 preliminary proposed expenditure budget aligned with the strategic plan include:

Student Wellbeing and Outcomes

• Addressing the graduation rate goal in the strategic plan by increasing the number of staff in the areas of: Graduation Pathways program, bilingual liaisons in Federal Programs, social workers in schools. It also addresses previously grant funded positions in the summer school program and social workers in Title I schools. LPS is proposing a nearly $1.4 million increase to support these changes.
• The area of Early Childhood will also see an investment of nearly $1 million by staffing and providing supplies for additional classrooms.
• By adding $1.8 million, LPS will address student and staff wellbeing and outcomes by adding approximately 36 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) in various teaching and staff roles for instruction and shifting counselors (9 FTE) previously funded by federal grants that were canceled.

Staff Wellbeing and Outcomes

• To assist in recruiting and retaining highly-qualified staff, salaries and benefits increases ranging from 4.55%-10%.

Family and Community Engagement

• Under Family and Civic Engagement, adding a Community Learning Center Community Builder is being proposed.
• There is also increased funding for lobbying expenses to ensure the school district’s needs are represented in conversations with elected officials and local, state and national governing bodies.

District Systems and Operations

• Required fixed cost increases of approximately $874,000 will address insurance premiums, transportation, custodial supplies and utility costs.
• Staff propose a one-time maintenance budget of approximately $2 million to address needs such as roof repair and replacement, parking lot and sidewalk repair and resurfacing, security upgrades, accommodating student growth and functional updates to address student needs.

Standish shared there were approximately $3.6 million in proposed needs requested by different departments not funded in the 2025-2026 proposed budget.

“Our department leaders do a great job of going through their programs and determining those requests that serve our students in the classroom,” Standish said. “Unfortunately, there are more needs than we have resources. Our staff and board have to make the tough decisions prioritizing investment that directly impact instruction and support serving student needs.”

LPS values community input, and continues to rely on a solid process for budget development that includes multiple opportunities for community feedback.

“The Lincoln Board of Education traditionally provides multiple opportunities throughout the budget development process for our families and community members to engage with us in building the budget,” said Board Member and Finance Committee Chair Annie Mumgaard. “We want to hear from you, and we hope the community utilizes the many communication avenues for sharing their priorities and questions. The earlier in the process we hear from our community, the more likely it is we can address their feedback.” 

The community is invited to attend any of the following:

Wednesday, June 25

• 7:00 a.m. - Online input form opens for the public to submit comments or questions (link can be found on website: lps.org/budget). The Q&A form will close on July 11.
• 12 p.m.  - Virtual public forum (link can be found on website: lps.org/budget)
• 6:00 p.m. - In-person public forum at Steve Joel District Leadership Center, Boardroom. The session will be livestreamed on YouTube.

Thursday, June 26

• 6:00 p.m. - Virtual public forum (link can be found on website: lps.org/budget)

Schedule a presentation

Community groups and organizations interested in receiving a preliminary proposed budget presentation may request one by contacting Associate Superintendent for Business Affairs Liz Standish at 402-436-1636.

Information about the budget development process can be found on the website at lps.org/budget.

---