Dist. 211 adopts budget with little objection

The Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 adopted a $229 million budget for 2011-12 on Thursday, despite a vote against it from board member Anna Klimkowicz.

While she was the only board member to express any concern about the budget’s approval, Klimkowicz did not elaborate on the problems she found in it.

“I feel that we as a board really need to have a vision and I think that vision needs to be a strategic plan,” she said before voicing the single nay of the meeting. “It’s got to be a plan to understand what we need to provide for our students and their education, what resources and opportunities we have and to be fair to our staff and to be accountable to our taxpayers.”

“I’m not going to be able to vote on this budget to support this budget, but I need to let you know how I feel in regards to it,” she added.

No one spoke at the public hearing before the vote, and no other board members suggested changes to the tentative budget presented in August.

The budget is in the black with revenue $585,000 more than expenditures. Without using the $1.8 million appropriated for contingencies, which historically has not been used, the projected budget surplus in all funds is $2.3 million.

Local property taxes are budgeted to bring in 2 percent, or about $4 million, more this school year and will make up about 85 percent of the district’s revenue. That percentage has increased slightly in recent years due to state funding shortfalls.

The school district is limited to how much it can raise its property tax levy by a tax cap law that is driven by the consumer price index. A 1.5 percent increase has been allowed by the CPI for the next fiscal year.

About $4 million of reductions from the 2011 fiscal year were budgeted in by the district through cuts in technology, staffing efficiencies and a restructured insurance program. Other savings came from reducing mailings by instituting more electronic forms of communication. The debt service levy will also be reduced by $3.7 million, an amount that is being moved from the district’s working cash fund.