$12.4 million projected shortfall prompts Naperville 203 to look for cuts

With a projected $12.4 million deficit looming, Naperville Unit District 203 officials say spending cuts will be necessary to help balance the 2027 budget.

School board members earlier this month directed district staff to find for ways to cut spending for the 2027 budget, which covers the 2026-2027 school year. In two messages to district residents this week, District 203 Superintendent Dan Bridges said the district is considering all options and that staffing cuts are likely.

“Because our district is built on people, staffing adjustments will unfortunately be a necessary part of this plan,” Bridges wrote in the district’s newsletter this week. “I want to be very clear, that this review is comprehensive and these reductions will impact a variety of district staff, including our administrators.”

He added that the district plans to handle as much as it can through attrition, meaning the district hopes to save on salaries as staff retire or resign.

“We are committed to protecting the classroom experience and the people we care about, and we will move through this process with professionalism and respect,” Bridges wrote in the newsletter.

In September, the board approved a four-year contract with the Naperville Unit Education Association, which represents about 1,500 educators in the district. Under the new deal, the district’s teachers will see an average 19.67% pay increase over the life of the contract.

The district’s current budget shows a deficit of $29.5 million covered by the district’s reserves. Cush noted that a portion of that deficit includes capital projects, or one-time expenses. The district anticipates a deficit of $12.4 million in the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

Budget projections show the district’s reserve fund will be about $66.2 million when the district closes the current budget on June 30. Those same projections indicate the district will run out of reserves in fiscal year 2030. By 2031, the district could face a budget gap of $27.24 million with no reserves to help cover the shortfall if spending remains unchanged.

Part of the challenge the district faces is a consumer price index that has lagged behind cost increases. The consumer price index, or CPI, is used to determine how much property tax levies can increase from year to year. While the CPI capped the district's levy increase to 2.9% for the district's 2027 fiscal year, expenses are currently predicted to increase by 5.2% overall. Salaries alone are expected to increase by 4.2%, according to the district's five-year outlook.

“When we communicated that this is not sustainable in the long term, this is what we meant,” Cush said, referring to comments he made during the district's contract talks with the teachers union last year.

“Our spending on personnel expenses, overall, has been outpacing CPI,” Cush added.

Additionally, state funding for mandatory services has declined while costs for those programs, including bus transportation, have increased, officials said.

“Even if they (the state) gave us the same dollar amount, it does not cover the same percentage of the bill that it did the year before,” Cush said.

District officials are expected to make recommendations on staffing levels for the 2026-2027 school year in March. The board will approve its budget in May or June.