U-46 budget with little cushion approved

The Elgin Area School District U-46 school board approved a balanced budget Monday night.

The budget reflects substantial cuts that have been felt across the district this year, particularly the net loss of more than 400 teachers and the larger resulting class sizes.

The budget, which has not changed since the administration presented it to the board in August, elicited no comments from the board Monday, and no one commented on the document at a public hearing two weeks earlier. The vote was unanimous.

U-46 expects to spend $456.7 million during the 2010-11 school year and receive $458.8 million, leaving a projected surplus of $2.1 million.

School districts typically like to have a budget cushion of about 1 percent; for U-46, $2.1 million is less than half of that.

The good news is that the district is expecting to get about $4.6 million in new funding from a federal education jobs bill President Obama signed into law in August.

But the budget also includes the cost of interest payments - $700,000 - on short-term loans to cover payroll. While U-46 officials do not believe they will have to resort to such loans, given the state's history of delayed and missed payments, they wanted to make sure the money was in the budget.

Even if U-46 is able to meet payroll, it still has a structural deficit of $40 million that would only be exacerbated by further delays in state funding.

Board President Ken Kaczynski said the apparent lack of discussion was deceptive, as the board and district staff have been refining the document for months - meaning Monday's vote was largely a formality.

You can view the budget at u-46.org or at the district's offices, 355 E. Chicago St., Elgin.