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Board challenger critiques Dist. 204 spending

Managing school district finances in a state as budget-challenged as Illinois is like "nailing Jell-O to a tree," one candidate for school board in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 says.

School board president and re-election candidate Lori Price used the Jell-O analogy, but she says the district is employing "thorough and thoughtful planning," to manage state funding uncertainty as responsibly as possible.

Only one candidate among four people seeking three school board seats in the April 7 election, challenger Renata Sliva, is voicing any criticism of how the district is managing its roughly $300 million budget. Incumbents and re-election candidates Justin Karubas and Mark Rising agree with Price that the district is handling its money wisely.

Sliva, a 56-year-old stay-at-home mom, says the district should try to save money by delaying the implementation of the Common Core state standards. The standards are designed to improve college and career readiness by setting higher expectations for student performance in English/language arts and math, and they have been adopted by roughly 40 states including Illinois.

Silva, of Naperville, said the Common Core homogenizes learning and wants "all districts to be the same." She said the standards are at the root of talks about changing the formula for state education funding.

"Everything goes down to the Common Core. It's a big, big unknown," Sliva said. "I think we really should work to delay it, to delay another expense."

But Rising, a 46-year-old software sales manager from Aurora, said the district manages its expenses well by waiting to commit to a spending plan until officials are told how much money the district will receive from the state. Each budget year begins July 1, but District 204 typically approves its budget a few months later.

"We have to figure out where we're going to make our cuts and make our efficiencies, and we don't pass our budget until September when school is already in place and that budget is already in effect," Rising said. "I think we do a great job."

Karubas, a 41-year-old attorney from Naperville, said the district receives 10 percent to 12 percent of its budget from the state. While that dollar amount is always in flux, District 204 can build its spending plan off other known financial figures such as the change in property values and tax rates.

"It's a balancing act at the end of the day," Karubas said. "We have been neither too great in reserves and we have not bottomed out, so we're doing a pretty good job."

Price, of Aurora, a 49-year-old buyer for a book store, said the expertise of the district's finance employees helps with forecasting, but only for the short term.

"Beyond one year," Price said, "you're just guessing."

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