Round Lake district plots steady course

Round Lake-area school officials expect the district's financial recovery from the bleak days of just a few years ago to continue through the next few years.

With nearly $14 million in the bank heading into fiscal year 2008 -- up from a like amount of debt just five years ago -- a financial planning program presented to Round Lake Area Unit District 116 officials Thursday projects relative stability.

"We have made good progress," Chief Financial Officer Walter Korpan said. "Moving to where we are now was a process of educating the staff and reducing expenditures, while not compromising the quality of the education."

The study was presented to a meeting of the school board and school finance authority, which has overseen district finances since 2002.

The program was prepared by PMA Financial Network, Inc., public financing specialists who work with more than 120 school districts across the state.

District 116 has adopted a basically balanced budget for the current year, with revenues and expenditures totaling close to $58.4 million.

Future projections call for a 5 percent increase in equalized assessed valuation for existing property each year until 2012, accompanied by $8 million in new property to the tax base each year.

The new property growth estimate is on the conservative side, officials said, because the average new growth value within the district was 10.1 percent over the last five years.

"We told the planners to be very conservative in all revenue projections," Chief Executive Officer Ben Martindale said. "We do not want to make plans based on something that may not be there."

What most certainly will be there are new students. The study projects enrollment to jump from 6,683 students this year to 7,959 in 2012.

District 116 receives 41 percent of its revenue from state sources making per-pupil contributions. State funding is expected to grow from $33.5 million in 2008 to $45 million in 2012.

Local property tax revenue is expected to grow from $24.7 million to $28.7 million in the same period.

The only year the study projects a deficit is 2009, when the new Magee Middle School is expected to open and the district might convert half-day kindergarten classes to full-day sessions.

The strain of those moves on spending, largely for staff costs, will produce a one-year revenue shortfall of $1.07 million, according to the study.

Once state aid catches up with those moves, the study says, district fund balances should grow by 1.2 percent annually in the next three years.