Unhappy Dist. 15 board member wants feedback on deficit spending

A Palatine Township Elementary District 15 school board member is urging taxpayers to provide feedback on a spending plan that has the district using reserves to pay for a roughly $4 million deficit.

In an email sent Tuesday, Scott Herr encourages the "District 15 community" to offer their comments before the board votes on the 2014-2015 budget during a meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday at Walter R. Sundling Junior High School, 1100 North Smith St., Palatine.

Herr plans to vote against the blueprint, saying the district is headed to a "slippery slope" of deficit spending. Plugging the shortfall without using reserves "can easily be accomplished" by holding off on discretionary spending and adjusting projections that could be overly conservative, Herr wrote in the email.

Herr said filling the gap would require cuts that are a "drop in the bucket" from the $151 million proposed for expenses.

Administrators have said eliminating the deficit would require choices among tough alternatives like cutting staff. Superintendent Scott Thompson also has said the district's fund balance can absorb the shortfall.