This year, Dist. 211 budget in the black

The tentative budget that the Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board approved on Thursday came without many surprises.

The 2010-11 budget is in the black, with more than a $4 million surplus. That's better than last year when officials anticipated a $1.7-million deficit for the 2009-10 budget. The state reduced funding for the district by $4 million, which was an obstacle, part of $1.2 billion in cuts to public schools across Illinois. However, Associate Superintendent for Business David Torres pointed out that the state is routinely late in paying districts their share of the funding, so staff already had experience in planning around the lack of money from Springfield.

The board unanimously passed the tentative $226.2 million budget for 2010-11 with $230.2 million in revenues. They'll have to vote on the budget again on Sept. 30. The full budget is available at d211.org. Torres said the district's expenses this year have decreased primarily because construction at its five schools has finally finished.

Last month, Torres detailed plans to cut the budget because of the state cuts and, in part, from the slumbering economy. The district avoided cutting personnel, but officials said staff reductions could be possible in the future if they don't find additional funding. Part of the cuts included reduced spending on technology by $1.3 million. A total of $4.1 million was cut in all.

Superintendent Nancy Robb again said the district's budgetary goal was to preserve and maintain already-existing programs. Robb also once more highlighted the district's property-tax abatement program. The $3.7 million abatement is designed to reduce the property tax rate. Since 2006, the district has abated $13 million and plans to continue the program until 2014.

"We have been hearing what the taxpayers have said and tried to mitigate part of that," Robb said.

The district depends on local sources of money for 91 percent of its budget, with property taxes representing the biggest chunk.

The latest federal inflation projections came out on Wednesday. That's of note as salary raises for teachers in District 211 are based on the Consumer Pricing Index for all Urban Consumers. The projections in inflation for the next few years show that District 211 will continue to have a tight budgets but will be able to have balanced budgets, Torres said.

As salaries are the district's largest expense, and property taxes are the district's No. 1 revenue source, property taxes will increase in step with the rate of inflation, Torres said. Board President Robert LeFevre tried to put that into perspective.

"If you increase the levy at the rate of CPI, that would be a nominal increase," he said. "Just the real value of what you're getting is the same value of what you've been getting before."

District officials once more point to the voter-approve tax-increase in 2005 that placed them in this advantageous financial position. The tax hike avoided about $18 million in cuts to extracurricular programs.