District 225 operating budget projects to remain stable for 2021-22
In a shorter, snappier meeting compared with others held earlier in the teeth of the pandemic, the Glenbrook High Schools District 225 board on Monday explained the current school-year operating budget, and projected it for the 2021-22 term.
"In looking at the overall school operating budget expenses for this year it's really not a great predictor, recognizing that we are in a unique time," said R.J. Gravel, who on Jan. 26 was promoted to associate superintendent of the district.
Formerly assistant superintendent for business services, Gravel handily explained that a revised formula got rid of a prior allocation based on square footage at both Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South. The existing per-student allocation was continued and broken down "line by line," he said. The second item is the existing "basic allocation" of expenditures common to both schools, which came to $2.1 million apiece.
A $265-per student amount at each school gives Glenbrook South a higher total allocation there, with 3,202 students to Glenbrook North's 2,072 students. For the 2020-21 year the operating budget for Glenbrook North would be $2,649,080 and for Glenbrook South it'd be $2,948,530 for a total projected operating budget of $5,597,610.
Keeping the basic and per-student allocations flat for 2021-22, an anticipated drop of 154 total students, 136 of them at Glenbrook South, lowers the estimated 2021-22 budget to $5,556,800.
Typically the district's budget increases by the same percentage as the Consumer Price Index for urban consumers, Gravel's information stated. The board did not recommend that increase for 2021-22.
"A lot of the expenses that were unique for COVID were absorbed by the district budget, and then we're just basically not spending all that much out of the school operating budget except for the necessities," Gravel said.
"We did look at prior years and we believe that at this point keeping the same level of funding for our school budgets, which are controlled by our associate principals for (administrative) services and their teams, keeping that same level as we have this year is appropriate," he said.
Those department and program budgets should be presented in tentative form in June, he said.
Responding to board member Marcelo Sztainberg's questions on COVID costs, Gravel had potentially choice overall financial news.
In addition to the district receiving $832,633 from the second federal CARES Act, he said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will reimburse 100% of accepted claims. Gravel said as of Monday the district had submitted claims worth just under $1.1 million and counting.
He did say of this funding: "I don't want to commit to it until I see it."
Early in the meeting, Glenbrook South Principal Lauren Fagel and Glenbrook North Principal Jason Markey had good things to say about the return of in-person learning.
Both principals said students who had initially committed to remote learning but changed their minds to in-school had all been pulled from wait lists into classrooms while the schools still complied with social distancing.
Fagel said about 1,000 Glenbrook South students attend, all requiring weekly saliva COVID tests, while Markey said about 900 samples per week were submitted for testing by Glenbrook North students. Gravel added that for the week of Feb. 1, 335 staff tests were taken districtwide. Staff is on an optional plan using a more stringent test.
District 225 Superintendent Charles Johns noted that for the week of Feb. 1 the student positivity rate had been .27%, with no teachers testing positive.
"Just trying to encourage everybody, despite all the positive metrics, to keep working because it has been successful, we want to keep it up," Johns said.