District 15 board nixes hotel stays, ends membership to save money

Pinching pennies is the name of the game these days in Palatine Township Elementary District 15, where the board is scrutinizing and questioning even the smallest of expenditures.

As a result, some spending that used to be a given has come to a halt.

Examples to come out of Wednesday’s board meeting include a decision to end the district’s membership in the National School Boards Association, saving $5,750 in annual dues.

And the district will no longer cover hotel stays in downtown Chicago for either elected officials or employees who attend a November conference for state school boards, administrators and business officials. For two nights, each room costs about $320.

Neither move will make much of a dent in next year’s deficit, which is tentatively penciled in at $6.8 million, but some officials say every bit helps.

“We are deficit spending now, so we really need to look at this as an austerity kind of period,” school board member Scott Herr said. “My opinion might be different if we weren’t in the situation that we are now.”

Board members Peggy Babcock and Rich Bokor voted to remain part of the national organization, but said they’ll pay out of pocket to stay overnight at the conference.

Babcock said there are after-hours opportunities to develop relationships with vendors and other officials. She also said that because sessions run all day, she’s concerned about the safety of commuting.

“You start at 7 in the morning and go until 9 or 10 at night,” Babcock said. “I’m not comfortable then finding my way to the Metra and coming back. Just my opinion.”

Exceptions may be made for certain administrators who live significantly farther from the city.

A majority of the board did approve paying the district’s $14,198 annual membership fee to remain part of the Illinois Association of School Boards, which most agreed is more valuable than its national counterpart.

Bokor said there’s a reason 98.3 percent of the state’s 872 school districts belong to the state organization. Babcock said membership ensures District 15 has a voice and knows what’s going on in other districts.

The lone dissenter in that vote was Board President Tim Millar, who said the organization often lobbies for issues not in the best interest of large school districts. He also believes District 15, with 12,000 enrolled students, shouldn’t have to pay more in dues than a district with just a couple hundred unless it’s given more voting power within the organization.