Dist. 220 forced to pass temporary budget

Faced with both a looming legal deadline to approve an annual budget and a big blank space on the salaries line as negotiations over a new teachers' contract continue, Barrington Unit District 220 officials took the only avenue open to them Tuesday.

They approved a budget all acknowledged was tentative, with the full expectation of changing it as soon as a new teachers contract is finalized.

In the meantime, the calculation of teachers' salaries was based on the last contract which expired Aug. 31.

"We kept it steady because we're in negotiations," District 220 Chief Financial Officer Gary Frisch said.

But board member Sandra Bradford, who chairs the finance committee, emphasized that the tentative budget neither reflects the impact of contract negotiations nor makes any assumptions about their outcome.

As meaningless as the newly approved document may be in the long term, it does show a balanced budget in which revenues exceed expenses and total salary costs actually dropped by 0.39 percent from last year.

The latter is largely due to the layoffs of 13 full-time employees at the end of last school year. These lost jobs were meant to be divided fairly evenly among teachers, administrators and support staff.

All public school districts are legally required to have an annual budget filed and on record by Sept. 30.

However, there are no restrictions on amending budgets afterward if the same public notification and approval process is used in making the revisions, Frisch said.

These include making the amended budget available for public review for at least 30 days before a public hearing and formal vote by the school board.

The tentative budget approved Tuesday shows revenues at $118.7 million, a 2.15 percent increase over last year's budget. The budgeted expenditures of $116 million reflect a 2.48 percent increase.

Employee salaries in the tentative budget are $68.4 million -- a dip of $269,819 from a year ago.

Since failing to reach a new contract before the old one expired last month, the school board and teachers union have enlisted a federal mediator for their negotiations.