The School Budget Cycle and Hearings

The fiscal year

Idaho Code 33-701 opens with the rule: "The fiscal year of each school district shall be a period of twelve (12) months commencing on the first day of July in each year." The state's fiscal year starts the same day, which is why the state appropriation for "fiscal 2027" pays for the 2026-27 school year.

The same section gives the board its basic money powers and one guardrail worth knowing. Under 33-701(1), the board orders lawful expenses paid, but total warrants and spending from any fund may not exceed 95 percent of the estimated income accruing to that fund for the school year until the income actually arrives. A district cannot spend money it only hopes to get.

The calendar, month by month

The school budget runs on overlapping clocks: the Legislature's, the district's and the county's. The chart and table below put them together for a typical year. Dates for 2026 come from the Tax Commission's 2026 school district budget and levy training; the rest come from statute.

When	What happens	Source
January to March or April	Legislature meets; the governor's budget arrives on the first day; the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee sets the public schools budget bills. For fiscal 2027, SDE says Senate Bill 1362 was set in February.	SDE FY 2027 appropriations presentation
Winter and spring	District estimates enrollment and staffing; issues teacher contracts for next year only after each written evaluation is complete	33-513(1)(b)
February 15	State payment of about 20 percent, using a distribution factor based on attendance through the first Friday in November	33-1009(1), (3)
April	SDE posts budget forms and revenue-estimating workbooks for the coming year	SDE Public School Finance page
By April 30	District notifies each county clerk in writing of its budget hearing date and place	Tax Commission EPR00112
May	May election date for levies and bonds; state payment of about 10 percent on May 15	34-106; 33-1009
By June 1	Board completes the superintendent's written evaluation	33-513(2)
June (usually)	Notice posted at least 10 days and published once; budget hearing no later than 28 days before the July meeting; adoption at the hearing or within 14 days	33-801, 33-402
July 1	Fiscal year begins	33-701
Within 30 days of adoption	Approved budget posted on the district website	33-357(3)(b)
July and August	New construction roll (fourth Monday in July) and taxable value (first Monday in August) reach districts from the county; electricity and gas tax estimates reach districts by the first Monday in August	Tax Commission EPR00112
August 15	First state payment, about 50 percent of the year's general fund appropriation	33-1009(1)
By August 31	SDE transfers School District Facilities Fund money to districts	33-911(2)
Thursday before the second Monday in September	District certifies its property tax budget in dollars to the county commissioners (September 10 in 2026), unless granted up to 7 working days' extension (September 21 in 2026)	63-803(3)
Second Monday in September	Deadline for school emergency fund levy certification	63-803(3), 33-805; EPR00112
Late September	County commissioners set levy rates and send them to the Tax Commission (September 21, or September 28 with extension, in 2026)	EPR00112
Late October	Tax Commission reviews and approves levy rates (October 26 in 2026)	EPR00112
By October 28	Annual statement of financial condition published, 120 days after June 30	33-701(5)
By November 10	Audit report filed with SDE after the board accepts it	33-701(6)
November 15	State payment of about 20 percent, which SDE may withhold if the audit is late	33-1009, 33-701(6)

Where the starting numbers come from

Before a district can write a budget, it needs estimates of how many students it will have, how many staff the state formula will pay for, and how much money each support unit will bring. All three depend on the Legislature. The state formula, explained in lesson 04, turns attendance into support units and support units into staff allowances and dollars.

For fiscal 2027, the State Department of Education's April 2026 appropriations presentation told districts the Legislature had continued most of fiscal 2026's revised budget, with no change in employee compensation, statewide support units held at 15,722, and general discretionary money at $23,472 per support unit, the same as fiscal 2025 and 2026. The Idaho Capital Sun reported in September 2026 that operational funding of $366 million had "essentially been frozen for three years." A flat state budget means districts write June budgets with rising costs and the same state rate, and that pressure shows up at the hearing as cuts, reserve draws or levy requests.

Districts also plan around the four state payments in 33-1009: about 50 percent on August 15, 20 percent on November 15, 20 percent on February 15 and 10 percent on May 15, with a final settlement in July. The August and November payments are advances based on the prior year. February's recalculation, using attendance through the first Friday in November, is when a district learns whether its enrollment guess was right.

The budget hearing

Idaho Code 33-801 is the core statute. Its requirements, in order:

• Timing. No later than 28 days before the board's regular July meeting, or no later than 14 days before it if the conditions in 33-804(4) have been met, the board must have prepared a budget in the form the state superintendent prescribes and held a public hearing on it.
• Adoption. The board adopts the budget at the hearing, or at a special meeting no later than 14 days after.
• Notice. Notice is posted and published as 33-402 prescribes: posted for at least 10 days and published once in a newspaper in the district, or if none, in the county, choosing the one most likely to give the best general notice when there are several. Proof of posting and publication is by affidavit filed with the board.
• The summary statement. The notice must include a summary of the budget for the current and coming years, consistent with standard accounting practice and in a form the superintendent prescribes. It must show amounts budgeted for all major classifications of income and spending, with salary and wage totals shown separately in each classification, and actual spending for the two previous years.
• Inspection. From the notice until the hearing, a copy of the budget "shall be available for public inspection at all reasonable times" at the district office or the clerk's office.
• Record. The board clerk keeps a record of the hearing.
• Consistency with the levy. The budgeted revenue in the property tax categories of 33-802 must match what the district presents to the county commissioners for levy purposes.

One more rule comes from the Tax Commission's property tax rules, as described in its 2026 training: unless Idaho Code provides otherwise, the property tax portion a district certifies cannot exceed the amount published in its budget hearing notice. A board that wants to certify more than it advertised has a problem. That makes the hearing notice the ceiling on the coming year's school property tax request, which is a strong reason to read it.

A board in a declared financial emergency under 33-522 may post its hearing notice for at least five days instead, with such further notice as is reasonable if newspaper publication is not feasible (33-402(1)). Declaring an emergency itself requires a public meeting first to take input on solutions, and the triggers are specific. One example: the State Department of Education certifies that general fund money per support unit was cut more than 3 percent from a prior year's original appropriation, and the board finds the other conditions in the statute are met.

The statute does not say who may speak at the hearing, but 33-510(5) requires the board to hear public comment, if offered, before acting on an agenda item, and adopting the budget is one. The school boards lesson in the testifying course covers comment rules and how to testify at the hearing.

Changing the budget mid-year

Budgets are guesses. Enrollment comes in low, a grant arrives, a roof fails. 33-701(9) tells the board to review the budget periodically and adjust it to match available funds and needs, with safeguards:

• Anyone proposing an adjustment must notify each trustee in writing one week before the meeting where it will be proposed.
• Before the final vote, notice must be posted and published once as 33-402 prescribes.
• The adjustment passes only if "voted affirmatively by sixty percent (60%) of the members of the board of trustees." That is 60 percent of all members, not of those present.
• Amended budgets go to the state superintendent.

Board size	60 percent of members	Yes votes needed
3 (elementary district)	1.8	2
5	3.0	3
7	4.2	5
9	5.4	6

On a seven-member board, four votes is a majority but only 57 percent, so a budget adjustment needs five. On a five-member board with one seat vacant, three of the four remaining trustees must still vote yes. SDE posts amended budget forms on its Public School Finance page each year, which is the format districts use to report the change.

After the year ends: the financial statement and the audit

The annual statement. Under 33-701(5), within 120 days after June 30 (by October 28), the district must prepare and publish an annual statement of financial condition in a form the state superintendent prescribes. It must include the amounts budgeted and received and from what sources, and the amounts budgeted and spent for salaries and other expenses by category. It is published once in a newspaper, certified true and correct by the chair, clerk and treasurer, and kept in the clerk's office "open at all times to examination and inspection by any person." If a district fails to publish, the state superintendent publishes it at the district's cost. The same subsection says each district must have available on request "a full and complete list of vendors and the amount paid to each" and the number of teachers paid at each gross salary level.

The audit. 33-701(6) requires a full audit of the district's financial statements as required by 67-450B, by an independent auditor on written contract. After the board accepts it, one copy goes to the State Department of Education no later than November 10. If it is late, the department may withhold all or part of the November 15 state payment, subject to appeal to the State Board. If the department asks questions about the audit, the district has 30 days to answer or risk its next payment. Under 67-450B, local entities also file each audit with the Legislative Services Office within nine months after the audit period ends. SDE's finance page posts the list of school auditors by district and the annual memo to auditors.

Transparency online

Idaho Code 33-357 covers districts, charter schools and similar education providers. Its requirements:

1. Each provider submits its expenditures and revenues with general ledger codes, as part of its state data submissions, to the State Board. The State Board sends them within 10 business days to the state controller, who posts them on the state's expenditure site, Transparent Idaho, showing who was paid, how much, when, and a unique identifier where possible, in downloadable form.
2. The provider links to that site from the main page of its own website.
3. The provider posts on its own website supporting contracts and performance reports for expenditures where those documents already exist, the board-approved annual budget within 30 days of approval, and current master labor agreements.

If your district's home page has no link to the state expenditure site, or the budget posted is last year's, the statute is the thing to cite when you ask about it.

From budget to levy rate

Most of a district's budget is state and federal money, which never touches the property tax. The part voters see on their tax bill is the district's voter-approved levies plus small emergency and tort levies, after state relief money is subtracted. The mechanics run through Idaho Code 63-803:

1. The county auditor tells each taxing district its taxable value as soon as it is known.
2. Using that value, the board certifies "the total amount required from a property tax" in dollars to the county commissioners, on the Tax Commission's L-2 form, by the Thursday before the second Monday in September. A district in more than one county splits its certification by each county's share of taxable value.
3. Before certifying, the district subtracts state money that replaces property tax. That includes the School District Facilities Fund, which 33-911(4) says must be identified on the certification and subtracted from the amount to be levied, and, beginning in 2026, the estimated electricity and natural gas tax revenue that replaced property tax on rate-regulated utilities.
4. Districts with voter-approved bonds and levies also report each one's expiration date to the county tax collector (63-803(5)).
5. The county commissioners set a levy rate that, applied to the tax rolls, raises the certified amount. The Tax Commission reviews the rate to make sure no limit is exceeded.

The local government course has the general versions of this math in Property Tax Math and Reading a Tax Bill, and the property tax course shows how school levies fit with every other line in Where the Money Goes.