Dist. 103 budget escalating due to construction projects
To correct a story in Wednesday's Daily Herald, all Lincolnshire-Prairie View District 103 fifth-grade classes will be held at Half Day School starting in the 2017-18 school year.
Planned additions at two campuses will swell Lincolnshire-Prairie View School District 103's annual budget for the 2017 fiscal year, officials said Monday.
The proposed $39.7 million budget is up nearly 27 percent from the roughly $31.3 million budget for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
Spending is rising so dramatically because construction projects totaling $14 million will begin in early 2017 at Half Day School and Sprague School.
At Sprague, crews will add seven classrooms and make some minor renovations to the existing building, Superintendent Scott Warren said.
Half Day will receive eight new classrooms and additional space for music. Some space in the existing building will be converted to group instructional areas, too.
About $8.5 million for the projects are included in the proposed 2017 budget, said Dan Stanley, the district's assistant superintendent for business, during Tuesday's school board meeting at Wright Junior High School.
The rest of the cash will be in the 2018 budget, because the work will carry over into that fiscal year.
Officials plan to pay for the construction projects with cash savings and loans.
District 103 has three schools. Sprague is for prekindergarten classes, first-graders and second-graders. Half Day School is for third- and fourth-graders. Wright serves fifth- through eighth-graders.
Starting in the 2017-18 school year, all fifth-grade classes will be held at Half Day School.
To cover the cost of the construction projects, salaries, computers, textbooks and other expenses, district officials expect to collect about $31.8 million in revenue during the 2017 fiscal year. Most of that will come from property taxes.
That's up slightly from the $31.3 million revenue projection in the 2016 budget.
Stanley said it's "largely unknown" how much cash the schools will get from state funds.
The uncertain future of Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed property tax freeze and other issues in Springfield make that cash flow "classically unpredictable," he said.
Following additional discussion, the school board is expected to approve the budget June 14.