Dist. 220 budget in the black, barely

For the second year in a row, the Barrington Area Unit School District 220 school passed a budget with little room for unexpected expenses, due in part to the fiscal uncertainty in Springfield, officials said.

The school board unanimously approved the $136 million 2015-16 budget Tuesday.

Tim Neubauer, the assistant superintendent for business services, said the district will be in the black, but the surplus will be only $233,908, less than one half of 1 percent of the total budget.

School board member Chris Geier, who chairs the board's finance committee, said Superintendent Brian Harris was asked to "sharpen his pencil" and identify expenses that could be cut to prevent a deficit.

Neubauer said the margin was even more narrow last year, when the budget had just a $131,549 surplus.

"It's another tight budget but it's a doable budget," he said. "We're going to be watching it closely all year long."

Neubauer said tight budgets like the last two might be the new normal for District 220 unless something changes in the state capital.

"(About 15 percent) of our revenues are at the whim, more or less, of the dysfunctional Springfield," he said. "We're all hoping that things just don't get worse."

Harris said district officials are confident about the expenses they have budgeted, but not about the approximately $11.5 million they expect to receive from the state.

The school district is saving money by reducing energy costs and capping the amount of money spent on employee overtime and substitute teachers when staff participates in professional development activities.

"We are being more efficient and being more responsible," Harris said. "We didn't cut all overtime, we didn't cut all extra duty, but we reduced it by 10 percent, which is a pretty significant amount of money when you are doing it across the board."

The district educates nearly 9,000 students from pre-K through high school and covers a 72-square-mile area. The largest expense in the budget is for salaries and employee benefits, which come to nearly $103 million, or about 76.5 percent of the total.

Geier encouraged members of the public interested in the budget to come to finance committee meetings and go through the budget process with district leaders. The next finance committee meeting is at 7:30 a.m. Oct. 13, at the district's administrative offices, 310 James St. in Barrington.

Shortly before approving the budget, board President Brian Battle summed up the board's thoughts on the plan.

"We all know it's tight, we're nervous," Battle said, before turning to Harris seated to his left. "Dr. Harris, it's all on you."

The 2015-16 plan is the 19th consecutive district budget in the black, officials said.