WAUKEE, Iowa — The Waukee Community School District has to take part in some financial gymnastics this school year to make up for a loss of $2.3 million in expected revenue.

The loss comes after district leaders informed parents in the district on Monday that there was a property valuation error regarding the Apple data center. The district was under the impression that the valuation for the center was $192 million, but was not aware that the City of Waukee and the center had an agreement on a 20-year property tax abatement that lowered the property tax evaluation to $60 million.

“In the ensuing last few weeks, we’ve basically been working to see what are some of our options is, are there legal actions that we could potentially take? Are there legislative actions that we could potentially take,” said Superintendent Brad Buck, Waukee Community Schools. “Our best hope is students and staff won’t feel one bit of this in their experience this school year.”

Buck affirmed to WHO 13 News that there would be no layoffs as a result of the expected budget shortfall. $1.4 million of the $2.3 million was supposed to end up in the district’s general fund, which pays for staff, student activities, school building maintenance, etc. But the district’s general fund has enough reserve funds to be able to cover that difference that the valuation error left.

Another half million dollars of the $2.3 million was supposed to cover the district’s principal interest on the school bond. But there are reserve funds in that account that are able to cover that loss, which means Waukee taxpayers will not see an increase in property taxes.

So, with reserve funds being used to fund current school year operations, what is being impacted? Superintendent Buck said that there are programs the district planned on implementing next year that will have to be placed on pause.

“We’ve been engaging in the conversation about adding things like upper elementary math experts, college career transition coordinators, just some positions that have been sort of beyond our capacity because of the cost of opening buildings,” said Buck. “And so in the near term, what that means is that conversation basically comes to an end is in terms of expanded programing in support of our students. So, and that’s probably one of the most challenging parts for us because we’ve been talking about this for a few years internally.”

Buck said that those conversations about those student programs will hopefully be coming in the future, but the district has to plan to work around the valuation error before those can be implemented.

The district will not have the issue in the upcoming spring to budget for the 2026-27 school year. Buck added that the relationship with the district, city and county is good and this is a learning lesson to make sure communication is up to par around property tax assessments.