Addressing overcrowding by adding classrooms has led the board of Glen Ellyn School District 41 to pass a budget that includes a $1.78 million deficit due largely to construction costs.
The board members voted 4-2 to approve the $55 million budget for 2015-16 with the newest members opposed, citing a need to find ways to trim spending.
The district has allocated more than $15 million to add classrooms and to remove 16 portable classrooms that had been used for nearly a decade. The budget deficit stems from about $4.9 million in remaining capital expenses to complete the additions at Franklin, Forest Glen and Churchill elementary schools, said Bob Ciserella, assistant superintendent of finance, and was expected..
“This (deficit) has been something we’ve been saying was going to happen for a long time. It was something every board member knew was part of the budget,” Superintendent Paul Gordon said.
Ciserella said some construction will be completed before the beginning of school and the rest by the end of the school year.
The budget includes estimated revenues of $53.05 million from federal, state and local sources, with expenses projected to be almost $2 million more. Local dollars make up about 92 percent of the district’s funding, with state dollars making up a little more than 6 percent and federal monies a little less than 2 percent.
Salaries account for more than half of expenses, for a total of $28,571,326, an increase of $126,994 over the previous budget, according to documents.
Board members Stephanie Clark and Kurt Buchholz, who ran together as a slate in the April election, said they could not sign off on a continually-rising budget. Buchholz said he has talked with numerous residents of Glen Ellyn who say they are “taxed to death,” which should spur the district to look at ways to reduce the budget by 3 to 5 percent.
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Clark said she was concerned the district seems to be able to find funding for new hires, but doesn’t seem to be able to reduce spending. She specifically objected to the hiring of two new foreign language teachers when the language plan will not be implemented until next school year.
Board member Patrick Escalante said this is the first budget that takes an extended look at sources of revenue over five years in an effort to understand how they’re used in the district. It was important for the board to begin to identify “the consequences of reduced aid and tax levies and this is the first time on paper we’ve illustrated that,” he said.
Gordon said he does not believe running a deficit will have a negative impact on voters when the district seeks approval for bonds to pay for construction of a new building for full-day kindergarten. The community task force of 24 tapped to explore the options of expanding facilities to support the program begins to meet later this month. Those options include adding classrooms at the schools or building a K–5 or early learning center. Bonds would pay for the construction.
Clark sought to charge the task force with another option — leasing space from the park district to support full-day kindergarten, but that was rejected after contentious discussion.
Keown is a freelance reporter.