U-46 sets $518 million budget, expects revenue drop
Elgin-area schools officials on Monday night adopted a roughly $518 million spending plan for the 2017-18 academic year.
Total revenues projected for fiscal year 2018 are roughly $509 million - $3.1 million less than the previous year's budget.
"We expected to see a net $3.1 million decrease after taking into consideration an $8.4 million decrease in state funding, a $1 million increase in federal funding, as well as a $4.3 million increase from local sources," Elgin Area School District U-46 CEO Tony Sanders wrote in a budget memo.
Expenditures are projected to increase by $6.6 million over last year's budget and will draw down the total fund balance by $8.9 million, documents show.
Due to the state's financial challenges, district officials have budgeted for only three of four categorical payments for this school year - an anticipated reduction of roughly $9.7 million in revenues. General State Aid is estimated to increase $1.3 million over the previous year. Its calculation this year was influenced by a decrease in the number of low-income students, which will reduce state aid by $4.6 million. Meanwhile, an increase in average daily attendance due to the district's adoption of full-day kindergarten will increase state aid by $4.5 million.
Salaries and benefits are budgeted to increase $7.9 million over last year - around 2.5 percent - while health and dental insurance costs are planned to increase roughly 5 percent.
Chief Operations Officer Jeff King said the district might have to amend its 2018 budget once the state education board calculates U-46's base funding based on a new evidence-based school funding formula.
King said the district ended the previous fiscal year with a $13.4 million surplus in operating funds due to receiving a last-minute state categorical payment and by holding off on some capital projects. Those projects likely will be added to this year's budget in the coming months, he said.
Officials held off on replacing school buses, purchasing 4,000 computers, and converting libraries at some high schools.
School board member Jeanette Ward cast the lone "no" vote on the budget objecting to increasing spending while enrollment is expected to decline 2 percent yearly over the next three years.
"U-46 also is set to receive close to $13 million more in additional funding from the state of Illinois," Ward said. "We should be reducing the property tax burden correspondingly, instead we are increasing the total spending by $6.5 million from last year."
Ward also opposed officials raising the district's tax levy while abating some taxes later on calling it "a sleight of hand."
"We are in fact increasing the levy extension in a permanent manner while we abate back money on a temporary basis. This in fact is disingenuous to the taxpayers," she said.