ELMHURST, IL – An Elmhurst School District 205 memo last month touted the district’s finances.
It said the district has shown “financial acumen” and “stands tall as a testament to fiscal responsibility.”
On Tuesday, a school board member painted a grimmer picture.
During a meeting, member Jim Collins pointed to a $12.2 million deficit in the district’s operating budget.
He said more than $6 million of that shortfall was justified. For each of the last three years, the district has tapped into its bank accounts for $7 million to make voter-approved projects “bigger and better,” he said.
Those projects will benefit residents for decades to come, Collins said.
The real problem, he said, was the “structural” $5.8 million deficit in this year’s budget, which he said was similar to last year’s.
Collins said he believed the ongoing deficits were a big reason for credit rating agencies’ downgrading of District 205 last year.
“If we show that we have no signs of stopping passing budget deficits, I suspect the credit agencies will be back again,” Collins said.
Salaries and benefits are up 7.6 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, this year, and they make up more than 70 percent of the budget, he said.
He noted the district hired 11 more teachers this year, even while enrollment has been relatively flat. (This is a problem he has highlighted before.)
Collins also warned the district likely wouldn’t meet its policy of having a certain amount of money on hand next year.
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Board member Kara Caforio said she didn’t disagree with the facts that Collins provided “because they’re facts.”
By the same token, she said the results of the district’s investments have paid off in the form of student success. Yet she said the district should increase its scrutiny of spending.
“We really need to try to be staffing neutral,” Caforio said. “We can’t continue to increase.”
The board voted 6-1 for the budget for this fiscal year. When asked for his vote, Collins said, “Respectfully no.”
A month ago, Patch reported that District 205, which is among the state’s wealthiest, held a low financial rating from the state. The district said the rating was likely the result of an accounting change.
In 2023, the state labeled the district as having “early warning” status. It was based on the previous year’s finances.
“Early warning” status is the second lowest of the state’s four designations.
According to the Illinois School Board of Education, 92 percent of the state’s 851 districts were at the top level, called “recognition.”
Just 10 districts received an “early warning” designation, while four were in the lowest category of “financial watch.”
Most of the other school districts given “early warning” status have far greater percentages of students from low-income families, ranging from 41 percent to 89 percent. In Elmhurst, the rate is 16 percent.
Recently, the school board’s president, Athena Arvanitis, replaced Collins as the finance committee’s chairman with Caforio. No public explanation was given.
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