District 54 releases tentative 2014-15 budget

The District 54 School Board released a tentative version of its 2014-15 budget at its June 19, 2014, meeting. District 54 expects to spend $230,600,572 during the 2014-15 budget year and receive $218,463,884 in revenues.

District 54 developed the 2014-15 budget based on the following parameters:

Revenues

• Interest income remains at historic lows.

• Property taxes are based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which was 1.7 percent in 2013 and is estimated at 2.0 percent in 2014.

• Benefit costs are projected to increase by about 5 percent annually.

• Federal aid is estimated to show minor increases.

• State aid is expected to remain flat. District 54 does not know for certain how much revenue it will receive from the state for the current year or for any projected year because of the funding deficiencies facing the state.

Expenditures

• There will continue to be a freeze on overall cumulative spending in supplies, purchased services and capital outlay. The only exceptions are in the Operations and Maintenance, capital projects and life safety funds, where the cost of services, such as electricity, can't be controlled; and in the Education Fund for planned textbook and technology adoptions.

• District 54 will issue no new debt and has been debt free since Dec. 1, 2011.

• District 54 will use reserves to fund capital outlay expenses instead of issuing new debt. The deficit in the Operations and Maintenance Fund, for example, is due to the expenses involved in the early learning center project. District 54 will cover those expenses with its reserves funds.

The tentative budget will be available at the District Office from July 1, 2014, through August 21, 2014. On August 21, 2014, a public hearing on the budget will be held at 7 p.m. in the boardroom of the Rafferty Administration Center, 524 E. Schaumburg Road in Schaumburg (prior to the School Board meeting that evening). The School Board is expected to adopt a budget at its August 21, 2014 meeting.

Individual Fund Summary

Fund Revenues Expenditures

Education $183,406,545 $181,407,563

Operations and Maintenance

18,823,800 32,644,386

Bond and Interest

21,371 0

Transportation

7,827,363 9,013,050

IMRF/Social Security/Medicare

6,980,593 6,925,185

Working Cash 776,169 0

Fire Prevention/Life Safety

628,043 610,488

To view the detailed 2014-15 tentative budget, visit the District 54 Board of Education website at http://sd54.org/board and click on the budget link in the June 19 Board Brief.