Board Blog

div class="MsoNormal"/divdiv class="p1"Although final approval of the District 57 2012-13 school year budget won't happen until September 2012, the budget building process is well underway. Since we rarely receive questions from community members until the summer, when the budget is nearly complete, the Board is launching a series of blog posts to describe the steps of the budget building process./divdiv class="p1"br //divdiv class="p1"/divdiv class="p1"a href="http://d57.org/sites/default/files/Budget%20Calendar%20Fiscal%202013%2011.17.2011%20Approved.pdf" target="_blank"Budget Calendar for 2012-13nbsp;/a/divdiv class="p1"/divulliReviewed and adopted by the Board in November 2011nbsp;/liliOutlines when the steps in the process are scheduled to be discussed and approved by the Board/liliMany of the deadlines are set to comply with laws./li/uldivdivbSemi-annual review of the district’s financial projectionsnbsp;/b/divdivulliProjections show expected revenue and expenditures for the next five years./liliBoard uses them to assess the financial health of the district.nbsp;/liliIf the Board has concerns about the district’s financial position, the Board directs the administration to make changes when building the new budget./li/uldivdiviResults of November 2011 review of the financial projections/i/divdivulliThe Board directed the administration to build the 2012-13 budget so that we can maintain class sizes and programs at the levels that they are in the current school year.nbsp;/liliThe district is maintaining the cuts that were made for the current 2011-12 school year.nbsp;No one in the district wants these continued, but to avert serious financial insecurity we must continue to take steps to reign in deficit spending.nbsp;To recap, some of these cuts:/liulliIncreased class sizes to much higher than historical levels (e.g., 30 students in 4th grade classrooms)/liliEliminated band and orchestra for 4th grade students/liliEliminated music for Kindergarten students/liliRestructured the gifted program and library staffing/li/ulliThe projections for 2012-13 show the district will still be deficit spending by approximately $1.4 million. The district’s fund balance will decrease to 46% of annual operating expenses. (See area circled in blue in Figure 1.)/li/ul/div/div/div/divdiv class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5iuSVyepiXk/TyB42pcFyBI/AAAAAAAAABM/uJMaTpAoEYY/s1600/Proj_Balences.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"img border="0" height="314" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5iuSVyepiXk/TyB42pcFyBI/AAAAAAAAABM/uJMaTpAoEYY/s640/Proj_Balences.jpg" width="640" //a/divdivbr //divdivspan style="font-size: xx-small;"bFigure 1: Despite cost cutting measures, the district's fund balances (in red) continue to decline. Once they drop below 30% (green line), the district risks having to borrow money to pay bills while waiting for property tax and other revenues to be paid./b/span/divdivspan style="font-size: xx-small;"bbr //b/span/divdivulliTo have enough cash on hand to pay the districts’ bills, the Board cannot allow the fund balance to drop below 30%; the target fund balance to ensure long-term stability is 40%./li/uldivdivbProperty tax levynbsp;/b/divdivulliThe property tax levy is the amount of money that the district requests the County to collect on the district’s behalf.nbsp;/liliDue to the tax cap law (formally known as the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law or a href="http://tax.illinois.gov/Publications/PIOs/PIO-62.htm" target="_blank"PTELL/a) the district can only increase its revenue each year by a percentage equal to the consumer price index, a href="http://www.bls.gov/cpi/cpifaq.htm" target="_blank"CPI/a, a measure of inflation.nbsp;/liliThe CPI for the 2012-13 budget is 1.5%; therefore, the district’s revenue from property taxes will only increase by approximately 1.5%.nbsp;/li/uldivdivba href="http://d57.org/sites/default/files/Student%20Fees%202012.13%20Approved%201.19.12.pdf" target="_blank"Student fee schedule/a/b/divdivulliThe fee schedule for next school year will largely be the same as it was for this school year. The two main exceptions are:/liulliTo encourage earlier signup for busing and to reduce staff time spent on collecting payments through the school year, the bus fee has been discounted from $450 to $375 if paid in full by 5/31/2012. The fee will remain $450 if paid after 5/31/2012. A 3-installment payment plan is also available./liliThe Technology Fee for students in grades 1-8 will increase from $25 to $30 due to the increasing cost of instructional software and computer supplies./li/ulliA few others, such as the yearbook and graduation fees at Lincoln, are increasing slightly, a reflection of increased costs to the district./li/ul/divdivThe next step in the budget-building process occurs in February, when the board reviews the proposed staffing plan for next year. As mentioned earlier in the review of the financial projections, the Board directed administration to maintain class sizes and programs at the levels they are this year. Therefore, we are not anticipating significant change in the staffing plan.nbsp;/divdivbr //divdivThank you for your continuing support of our students, staff, and schools. nbsp;Our schools are a reflection of our community. nbsp;Our district’s success depends on your support and involvement. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email the Board via the a href="http://www.d57.org/board-of-education/feedback" target="_blank"Board Feedback/a link./div/div/div/div/divdivbr //divdivSann Knipple/divdivbr //divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/1378582271848186678-9099424331564521830?l=d57boe.blogspot.com' alt='' //div