District 211 approves budget for debt-free future
Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board members voted 6-1 Thursday to approve a $268 million budget for the current academic year that will make the district debt-free for the first time by the end of the calendar year.
The budget calls for reserve funds to be used to pay off the district's last $3.1 million of debt in December.
Board member Pete Dombrowski cast the dissenting vote. He said that while he believes the district has been doing a good job cutting costs, he voted against the budget for its commitment of about $10 million for capital improvement projects through 2020 that are still unspecified.
Consistent with the district's recent practice of having deliberate deficits to bring down its reserves, the budget calls for $249.3 million in new revenue.
These revenues are based largely on last December's property tax levy, which saw a 0.3 percent increase over the previous year - only a sixth of what the district had the legal authority to seek, Superintendent Dan Cates said.
"Consistent with the board's commitment and strategic plan, the budget utilizes existing reserve funds to reduce the local property tax amount by $3.5 million and uses $23 million to pay for long-term facility improvements without taking on debt," he added.
Though the total budget has a deficit, the operating budget is balanced as required by law with costs of $241.2 million.
It's a budgeted surplus of $8.2 million in the operating budget that's being set aside for future capital projects.
District administrators said that while budget approval is when money is reserved for such projects, next summer's improvements won't be determined until later.
This summer's projects, for instance, ultimately included extensive renovations of Schaumburg High School's cafeteria and 14 restrooms, as well as the reconstruction and relocation of Fremd High School's athletic fields.
"By using our reserves to fund major facility improvements, to invest in prepaying future pension obligations and to reduce property taxes, we project this budget plan will decrease our reserve funds from 54 percent to 45 percent by the end of the fiscal year," Cates said.
Though officials are trying to reduce the reserve funds, they intend to bring them no lower than a third of annual expenditures - or about $80 million - in order to handle any unexpected costs.