Palatine Dist. 15 finances likely to be hot topic at Tuesday forum

You can't start off on a negative.

That's the problem with the Palatine Township Elementary District 15 budget, says Manjula Sriram, who is seeking a second term on the school board in the April 7 election. The district, she says, needs to do more to find ways to plug the hole.

“If we are going to have deficit spending, what are our options to be able to look at to cut somewhere?” she said. “Or what can we do to not have that deficit in the budget?”

Challengers in the race offer a far more favorable review of how the district has handled its finances.

“We have some infrastructure issues that we need to address,” Jessica Morrison said. “And for that reason, if there's a deficit one year, it doesn't concern me as much as it may some of the other candidates that are running because I look at the budget as more of a long-term plan ... versus, 'this year, we need to be at zero.'”

The district's financial outlook likely will be a hot topic when the seven candidates for three seats on the school board meet in a Tuesday night forum hosted by the Northwest Suburban Council of PTA/PTSA. The forum begins at 7 p.m. at Walter R. Sundling Junior High School in Palatine.

On one slate are challengers Morrison, David Gurion and Zubair Khan. On the other slate are Frank Annerino and board members Sriram and Gerard Iannuzzelli. Joshua Perry is the only candidate campaigning on his own.

At its April 8 meeting, the day after the municipal election, the new board will review the district's five-year financial forecast. The numbers should be in the ballpark of the last update in October, Superintendent Scott Thompson said.

At the time, financial planners said the district should finish the current fiscal year with a $3.95 million shortfall and have an estimated $1.68 million shortfall in 2015-16.

The district is expected to finally see black, with a $196,000 surplus, in 2016-17.

But there are several uncertainties that could throw a huge wrench into those plans. One downstate lawmaker is pushing a proposal to redefine how the state distributes funding to the 860 school districts in Illinois. If approved, District 15 would lose $9 million.

One looming decision for the board is figuring out how to pay for critical repairs needed in the district's aging schools. A state-mandated safety audit of its buildings, required every decade, uncovered more than $20 million in high-priority work, some of that addressing plumbing and electrical issues. About $1.7 million of that has since been moved to a lower-priority list.

Typically, the district spends $3 million on capital budgets annually, but the board earmarked roughly $4.6 million this school year.

Annerino and the two incumbents called for a third party to review the findings by the district's architects.

Sriram and Iannuzzelli take issue with the district dipping into its reserves in recent years to cover deficits, but they support using that funding to address the so-called “category A” projects in the audit. The difference? Sriram said those expenses are “critical to the safety of the students,” although district officials have said nothing poses an immediate danger.

“Don't use the reserves for operations costs,” Iannuzzelli said. “Figure out how we we're going to cut expenses on the operation costs, for the everyday operations costs and let's use the reserves to really take care of these things.”

Gurion, however, doesn't see any glaring problems with the district's financial stewardship, but thinks the board should find new revenue sources. He floated the idea of full-day kindergarten, an offering he says would draw more students to the district, during a meeting with the Daily Herald's editorial board.

“Not to say that's the answer or the solution, but I think it's going to require some outside-the-box thinking that will bring in some more revenue streams to the district,” he said.

If the state dramatically cuts funding to the district, Khan said the board should reconsider its policy of keeping reserves at about 34 percent of the district's operational costs.

“I think the district does a decent job of long-term planning,” Khan said. “And if you have planners that you can trust — as long as that reserve is being spent pursuant to a plan, than it's OK to reduce that amount.”

Comparing the district to neighboring ones of similar size, Khan also doesn't see evidence of overspending.

Perry said the district may have to do some “forensic accounting” of its finances.

“They talk about big budget numbers and then the board moves on, and I would definitely have to go in detail,” Perry said.

“We may have to go line by line, even do some forensic accounting and find out what's going on. But are we using our money wisely? I don't know.”

Perry, though, is clearly against slashing staff members to drive down costs.

“Cutting the teachers is probably the worst thing we can do because the class sizes are already too big,” he said.