How new state funding helps pay Districtr 204 teachers

Indian Prairie Unit District 204 can afford to pay its teachers, administrators and nonunion employees a combined $6.5 million more next year, thanks to a change in the state education funding formula.

A boost in state funding will help the district of 28,000 students from parts of Naperville, Aurora, Bolingbrook and Plainfield not only bring its teacher pay closer to educator salaries in comparable districts, but also help fund other priorities, officials say.

The state's new evidence-based funding formula, approved last August, gave the district $8 million more this year, Chief School Business Official Jay Strang said. But the money was approved after the school board set its final budget for fiscal year 2018. Without a plan for how to spend the new money, Strang said the district saved it and added it to reserves.

Now, the district is in line to receive the extra $8 million each year, and likely additional new money on top of that, as the state aims to fund schools so all can "educate students effectively and equally," Strang said.

The new formula sets each district's base payment at the amount it received from the state in fiscal year 2017. That alone helps District 204, because under the old formula based largely on property taxes and student population, Strang said the district was set to lose $3 million a year for the next five years.

After paying the base amount, Strang said the new formula provides additional money to districts that are not adequately funded based on 27 factors, such as demographics, numbers of students who need special supports, number of teachers, class sizes and number of administrators.

The additional funding a district receives one year is then added to the base, which is why Strang said the state funding coming to District 204 is likely to continue to rise.

For example, in preliminary projections for the fiscal 2019 budget, the first that will include money from the new evidence-based funding formula, District 204 expects to receive $41.2 million from the state for education - up from $31.6 million projected in the fiscal year 2018 budget.

Under a new four-year contract approved Monday, the district will owe $5.8 million of its new money to the roughly 2,400 members of the Indian Prairie Education Association, who are receiving an average raise of 4.13 percent. The contract then costs about an additional $4 million each year for the next three years, bringing its total added cost to $18.1 million, according to Doug Eccarius, assistant superintendent for human resources.

Next year, 87 administrators and 168 nonunion employees also will be receiving 4.13 percent raises, costing the district $760,520.

Salaries and benefits amount to 76 percent of the district's roughly $339 million budget. Even with the raises promised for the next four years, Strang said that proportion is not likely to increase.