The Orland School District 135 board has hired a new top administrator after getting a glimpse of a “worst case” budget that could deplete reserves to stem state funding cuts.
John Bryk, 49, of Mokena, will earn $135,000 a year as assistant superintendent for human resources and operations, starting July 1. He replaces Julie Oberwise, who will be demoted to deputy human resources director.
“In a district this size, we wanted to bring in an assistant superintendent to help oversee some of the operations,” board president Joe La Margo said Monday night. “We also needed to kind of bring the HR department up to the next level.”
Bryk, the chief business official for Minooka High School, touted his experience implementing teacher evaluations linked to student performance in 2011 while an assistant principal at Thornton Fractional High School District 215. Performance-based teacher evaluations loom as part of Illinois’ new student achievement testing procedures.
His hiring came after District 135’s finance director, Carl Forn, gave the school board an initial look at the 2015-16 budget, which forecasts a $1.9 million loss in state aid. That, coupled with fund transfers to cover debt payments and building improvements, threatens to drop district reserves by about $7.5 million.
The four funds that comprise district reserves should stand at $41.9 million at the June 30 end of this fiscal year but will drop to $34.4 million a year later and plummet to $24.6 million by July 2017, according to the district.
“Right now, my emotion is very concerned,” board member Laura Berry said. “I’m just concerned that this is it and then we have to go back to taxpayers,”
The board has not increased the district’s property tax levy the past two years while also implementing a policy to spend reserves down to 45 to 55 percent of the annual budget. The projections that Forn presented Monday would put reserves at 45.8 percent in 2016 and 31.4 percent in 2017.
Michael Carroll, chairman of the board’s finance committee, said District 135 was “not expecting being cut off at the knees in Springfield” when those past financial decisions were made.
While no one knows what state lawmakers ultimately will do, district officials are counting on a 25 percent annual cut, from $5.9 million to $4 million, with further reductions expected in subsequent years. Legislators for the second straight year are considering redistributing education dollars to the detriment of school districts with strong property tax bases, including District 135.
Also Monday, La Margo said no plans have been made yet for replacing Carroll, who was elected April 7 to the Orland Park Village Board and will be sworn in next month.
La Margo, board member Greg Okon and newcomer Angie Sexton won new four-year terms on the District 135 board in the district election and are expected to be sworn in May 5 at Centennial School.
Patrick Guinane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.