The Washoe County School District will enter the next school year with a balanced budget.

The Board of Trustees voted on a budget reduction plan in its budget workshop on Tuesday morning that eliminates the $5.7 million deficit left on the books for the 2026-2027 school year.

WCSD Board President Adam Mayberry said they made the necessary cuts without impacting students and teachers.

Mayberry said in Nevada and nationally, "a lot of school districts are in dire shape. where they are, in fact, making cuts in the classroom. We're not doing that here in Washoe County School District."

But Central Services will feel the burn. Of the $5.7 million in cuts, just under $4 million comes from personnel reductions.

Mayberry said almost 50 positions will be eliminated across departments, including business and finance, IT, and human resources. 19 of those positions are currently vacant.

The Board said it will not lay off 38 affected employees, but they will have to move on to different roles.

"Some folks will have to be relocated to different sites, different school sites, different district sites," Mayberry said. "That, we recognize, can disrupt and uproot their lives. We're sympathetic to that. But they have a job."

In addition to the budget meeting, the board also passed some resolutions to fund school upgrades at its regular meeting on Tuesday afternoon.

WCSD's Chief Financial Officer said the two items let the district issue bonds that pledge property taxes and sales tax, respectively.

"They really are important in terms of providing the funding for us to continue the intensive work," said Mark Mathers, the CFO for WCSD.

With next year's budget figured out, Mayberry says the board is looking ahead to challenges for fiscal year 2028.

The Mater Academy charter school is set to open a new campus in the North Valleys for the 2027-2028 school year. WCSD estimates 733 students will go to the new school, which will impact per-pupil funding.

"Even if they're for-profit charters, which Mater is, they still get taxpayer per-pupil funding from the state," Mayberry said.

The new budget goes into effect in July and will run until June 2027.

The Board said it expects to be $3 million in the hole when it starts budget talks for FY28 due to declining enrollment.