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Mundelein High School board finalizing $39.7 million budget

With last year's building expansion and completed, Mundelein High School officials are finalizing an annual budget that calls for considerably less spending than its predecessor.

The District 120 school board on Tuesday is expected to tentatively approve a roughly $39.7 million spending plan for the 2018 fiscal year, which began July 1. That sum is about 16 percent smaller than the previous year's $47.3 million budget.

Mundelein High business manager Andy Searle attributed the decrease to the completion of the $23.7 million addition, which brought new classrooms, science labs and other amenities to the school and took more than a year to build.

The project was funded with loans and an $8.3 million state grant.

The board also has paid off a nearly $2.9 million loan from 2007 that helped fund the purchase of the Village Green Country Club, Searle said. The district bought the 94-acre site in 2004 for use as a second campus, but it was never redeveloped and has since been put up for sale.

Unlike the previous year's spending plan, the proposed budget doesn't include any multimillion-dollar construction projects, Searle said.

"The district is taking a much-needed break from large capital projects this year," he said.

But that doesn't mean improvements aren't being made on campus. For example, the budget includes about $160,000 for new lockers in the boys and girls locker rooms and $50,000 for recently completed parking lot and curb repairs.

The budget also includes about $20,000 to construct an unusual learning space for special education students. It will resemble a residential apartment and be used to teach the skills needed for independent living, such as cooking and cleaning.

"It will include a stove, a sink, kitchen cabinets, a washer and dryer and a bed," Searle said. "There will be about 30 kids that will use it."

To fund those and other expenditures, officials expect to collect about $40.4 million in revenue during the new fiscal year, mostly from property taxes. That's up slightly from the $40 million revenue estimate in the 2017 budget.

Tuesday's meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. at the school, 1350 W. Hawley St.

The board is expected to formally approve the final draft of the budget on Sept. 12.

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