Public to help solve Woodland schools deficit
The Woodland elementary school district in Gurnee has officially launched an advisory community committee charged with making suggestions on how best to fill a $3.5 million budget hole projected for the 2010-11 academic year.
About 65 members from various walks of life on the financial advisory community task force were part of an inaugural meeting Monday. Plans call for the group to issue cost-cutting and new-revenue suggestions to the elected Woodland District 50 board on Dec. 17.
District 50 board President Lawrence Gregorash said the elected officials will get the final vote on what happens. He said the task force members' work will be important because they likely will have ideas school officials don't know about.
"We'll make the tough decisions, which may not always be popular, but they will be made," Gregorash said, referring to the school board.
District 50 expects to have an $84 million budget for the 2010-11 school year. But similar to other schools, income is not expected to keep pace because of a flat consumer price index, or inflation rate.
Since 1991, Illinois law has limited many taxing bodies to a levy increase at the rate of inflation or 5 percent, whichever is lower.
With the flat inflation rate, Gregorash said, that means Woodland must trim costs, find new revenue or a combination of both to cover the projected $3.5 million deficit.
District 50 went through a similar procedure in 2006, when 80 members of an advisory financial review committee identified new revenue sources and potential budget cuts in an attempt to improve cash flow by $2.2 million.
In the end, the committee's suggestions in 2006 led to the Woodland school board eliminating three administrative positions to save $266,350 annually and boosting hot-lunch costs by 25 cents to 50 cents, generating an extra $175,000 or so yearly.
Associate Superintendent Robert Leonard said Woodland last went to the voters for a tax rate increase in 1999, and succeeded. He noted all who have served on the board have stuck by the original pledge to work with available money for 10 years.
"Finance, for our district, is probably one of our top two concerns," Leonard said.
Woodland's enrollment as of last week declined to 6,878. Superintendent Joy Swoboda said district enrollment likely will remain steady and then dip by 500 in the next five to eight years.
District 50 serves all of Gages Lake and Wildwood and parts of Gurnee, Grayslake, Park City, Third Lake, Old Mill Creek, Wadsworth, Lake Villa, Waukegan and Libertyville.
Task force members are set to meet again Oct. 5 at Woodland Intermediate School in Gurnee.
Deficit: Board will make final decisions