District 211 adopts tentative budget

Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board members Thursday voted 6-1 to adopt a tentative budget for the new school year that reflects both a $1.8 million reduction in spending and a $10.4 million drop in reserves.

One of the biggest differences in spending is that the district last year bought the building next to Hoffman Estates High School for $1.5 million to house all of its special education programs.

Total costs in the new budget are $256.4 million - a 1.2 percent reduction from last year's actual spending.

Budgeted revenues for the new year are $249.5 million - 0.2 percent less than last year.

"I want to emphasize this is a planned deficit," Controller and Treasurer Barb Peterson said. "It is coming directly out of our reserves. ... Our budget is a balanced budget in the operating fund, which is required by law."

The budget was based on the 0 percent tax levy increase approved by the school board last December.

This budget again plans to use $2 million from the working cash fund to reduce the levy in the debt service fund.

Peterson said the district will be able to pay off the rest of its bonds next year. That would leave only a couple of years left of paying off the lease for its student iPads before the district can call itself completely debt-free.

Other fund transfers in the new budget include $3 million from working cash reserves to the life-safety fund, $14 million from operating fund reserves for facility improvement projects, and $3.5 million from reserves in the district's retirement fund to pay toward the unfunded liability with the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.

Slightly more than half the district's employees - all those who either aren't or weren't teachers - keep their retirement funds in IMRF.

The district ended last school year with higher than expected surpluses in some funds for a variety of reasons that aren't expected to recur. These included receiving four state-aid payments during the year when only three had been budgeted.

Board member Pete Dombrowski, who ran last year on a platform of greater scrutiny of the district's finances, cast the sole dissenting vote against the tentative budget.

The board is scheduled to approve the final budget at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22.