MARBLEHEAD — Marblehead Public Schools officials said the district is projecting a nearly $2 million favorable balance in its FY26 budget, allowing administrators to prepay special education tuition costs and tackle long-delayed maintenance projects before the end of the fiscal year.

Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Michael Pfifferling told the School Committee on May 7 that the district currently has just short of $2 million in unexpended and unencumbered funds available.

“We’re in a very favorable financial position right now for the school department,” Pfifferling said during the committee’s financial update.

District officials plan to reserve approximately $1.5 million of the balance to prepay next year’s out-of-district special education tuition costs, a move administrators said is intended to ease pressure on future budgets.

Pfifferling cautioned committee members against assuming the remaining balance represented excess discretionary spending, noting the district is still monitoring payroll obligations under a new payroll system and evaluating end-of-year costs.

“With this being our first year with the Unison payroll, we are just being super cautious,” Pfifferling said.

He also said administrators have spent recent weeks conducting facilities walkthroughs with principals, custodians, and maintenance staff to identify infrastructure needs that could be addressed before June 30.

“We’ve identified a lot of things that need to be addressed,” Pfifferling said. “These are repairs, these are pumps, these are a lot of heaters. These are things that they’ve run their life.”

Pfifferling said many of the projects involve routine replacement and preventative maintenance rather than deferred neglect, but he stressed urgency because the district expects tighter finances next year.

“That’s why I’m very anxious to get as much of this work done before June 30. Soon as possible,” he said.

School Committee member Jennifer Schaeffner questioned administrators about whether the district’s maintenance budget would remain level-funded in FY27 and sought clarification about how prepaid special education tuition factored into the town’s override planning documents.

Pfifferling said the district plans to use the current surplus to cover next year’s tuition obligations but warned the move could create a future gap in the FY28 budget.

“So next year, we will not have any prepay money, and we will be short $1.5 million for our FY28 budget,” he said.

Administrators said they expect to return to the committee in June with a list of proposed maintenance and facilities expenditures for approval before the close of the fiscal year.