Squeezed by teachers` raises and cuts in state aid, officials in Elgin Unit School District 46 are facing a budget deficit that could stretch to $8 million next year.
The deficit, expected to surpass $3 million this June, could spur widespread cuts in educational programs and make teacher negotiations in the strike-prone district more thorny come summer.
”Ninety percent of our expenditures are personnel-related,” said Robert Erickson, chairman of the school board.
”It`s certainly a bigger challenge to develop a good contract resolution with our employee groups if we are feeling a burden of insufficent funding.” Budget deficits are nothing new to school officials. The district has carried over deficits from one budget to the next over the last several years. But with the state`s diminishing financial support and an upcoming new contract to be negotiated for its 17,000 teachers, the district next year could face its biggest shortfall ever.
District officials are attempting to slash $705,209 from this year`s budget to help the situation, Erickson said.
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Already strong candidates for the chopping block, Erickson said, are summer school classes for students in remedial, gifted, at-risk and special education programs.
Some other Chicago-area schools either have dropped summer school, or are thinking about it, or are charging tuition in light of the state`s refusal to finance programs this year.
However, canceling summer school would only save the district about $170,000, Erickson said.
Supt. Richard Wiggall has asked administrators to come up with a list of other cuts to make up the difference. Wiggall plans to submit the list to the school board on Monday.
In addition, Erickson said, the district is inviting the public to offer suggestions on erasing the deficit from the $127 million budget.
”We are asking the communities that we serve and those involved in U-46 programs to accept the challenge of finding ways to deal with this problem,” said Erickson.
The board, he added, plans to make a final decision on the cuts in about a month.
District officials are trying to project the exact size of next year`s deficit.
Depending on the amount the district will lose in state aid and the size of the teachers` pay raises next school year, the 1992-93 deficit could run from $1 million to $4.8 million, Erickson said. Adding the $3.3 million shortfall, which the district expects to carry over from the current budget, next year`s deficit could hit $8.1 million, Erickson said.
”We are hoping for the best, but bracing ourselves for the worst,” he said.
Also crossing their fingers are parents, who in 20 years have endured seven strikes, including last summer`s walkout which idled 28,400 students in Elgin, South Elgin, Wayne, Carol Stream and Hanover Park for 21 days.
Parents, many of whom have gone on the offensive by forming a group to help improve relations between the district and teachers union, are hoping the deficit will not lead to an eighth strike this year.
”I know there are parents who feel, `Oh, we`re going to have another strike,` but I just can`t think that way,” said Gary Lichthardt, spokesman for the U-46 Parents Action Committee.
”I think the communication between the (Elgin Teachers Association) and the district has been positive and constructive and teachers realize the deficit is beyond the district`s control.”
Erickson said the district has set aside enough money to pay a raise of at least 4.5 percent next year. But at the same time, he said, the district may not be able to hire enough new teachers to accommodate the 600 additional students the district expects next fall. This could mean larger classes, he said.
Members of the Elgin Teachers Association are studying the deficit and are declining to comment on what effect it may have on negotiations, said Kathy Hurd, a member who is researching financial issues for the union.
However, she did say, ”The state constitution requires the state to be the primary funder of local education and they`re not doing it. . . . I tend to think it would be important for people to press their legislators to get the appropriate funding level from the state.”