District 95's Budget is Balanced But Tight

Just like a household budget, District 95 is balancing their budget by taking small amounts of money from several different places instead of just one.

"We have looked at cutting expenses everywhere and not just one place," said Mike Egan, Ph.D., superintendent, District 95. "For example, we've cut $10,000 in paper costs by communicating electronically district wide."

With a small amount of wiggle room District 95's Board of Education approved the 2010-2011 budget of $94,782,832 at tonight's school board meeting with board members asking for room to breath.

"There is very little money to play with this year and we encourage our administration to develop a plan for variances," said Doug Goldberg, school board member.

The state of Illinois is still 180 days late in payment. We expect the trend to continue for Fiscal year 2010-2011 and possibly get worse, according to the budget.

The board is looking ahead to the future as well, "With the anticipation of enrollment slowly declining, expense management is going to be our challenge," said Mike Finn, board member. 

Currently, the administration has been able to make up for some of the economic shortcomings and federal and state reductions, by making smaller cuts in purchased services at almost all schools. They've also implemented a one-year bus equipment buy back program.

A recurring concern is the consumer price index (CPI). It's at a low of 0.1%. "This is the lowest the CPI has been in years," said Jeff King, assistant superintendent of business and operations.

That percentage is used to determine what District 95 can submit to the county to levy for taxes in the budget which funds $67,923,698 of it. Last year the CPI was at 2.7%. The percentage of the CPI and the growth in the community become the determining factor in available funds for the year.

"There will be challenges to keep the budget balanced if the CPI remains at 0.1%," said Egan.