A district wide email has surfaced from Buffalo Public Schools CFO James Barnes that no more general fund requisitions will be processed.
The email, dated March 19, 2026, is a spending cut-off notice as the district is pushing to hit its objective for a $60 million dollar deficit.
"Things are tight right now," said School Board member Larry Scott. "Extra spending is being put on hold. We're being more cautious about how the district is spending money."
Scott said the current deficit is $78 million dollars. The goal is to get it down to $60 million for next year.
He said this all goes back to when the district received federal funds post-Covid.
Buffalo Public Schools received approximately $289 million in federal relief funds from the American Rescue Plan.
"We increased staff. We increased programming. We increased contracts," said Scott. "We now have to find a way to reduce all of that."
The district has approximately $300 million dollars in reserves.
He cautioned that the district cannot rely on reserves or it will be in the same position as the city of Buffalo.
"The city's reserves are depleted and now they're talking about raising taxes and borrowing money. We want to avoid that at all cost."
Closing schools is a possibility.
School Board member Erik Bohen said there is no way around it.
"If we don't close schools within a year, the deficit is just going to continue to increase," said Bohen. I've talked to Chief Financial Officer Jim Barnes and he said we need to close six schools. Ultimately, this will be up to the school board and superintendent."
