Glenview School District 34 school board members recently approved a $73.1 million budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year and set the stage for the sale of up to $12.7 million in new bonds to pay for construction projects related to “life safety.”
Board members unanimously approved the budget, which projects $67.2 million in revenue and $67 million of expenses and a projected surplus of $207,261 for its operating funds, on Sept 21.
According to district officials, the overall budget is projected to post an $11.2 million surplus thanks to the planned sale of those bonds during the 2015-16 fiscal year. Once the sales occur, the proceeds will be in hand even though much won’t be spent for another year or two, officials said.
Without that sale, the overall budget posts an $18,752 deficit.
“The bottom line is, it’s basically a balanced budget, excluding the bond sales,” said Chris Northwick, a board member.
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The 2015-16 budget will be posted to District 34’s website, glenview34.org, Communications Director Jenn Nimke said.
As for that bond sale, board members also unanimously approved calling a public hearing for their Oct. 12 meeting.
The proposed sale aims to take advantage of historically low interest rates and nullify the uncertainty of state funding by tripling the amount of “life safety”-related construction projects slated for the next two school years, district officials said. Issuing the new debt would also allow the district to avoid tapping its reserves, officials added.
Under the current plan approved on Aug. 17, District 34 would issue up to $12.7 million of new bonds over the next two years to pay for those projects and borrow an additional $6.9 million to refund bonds issued in 2005 and 2006.
The district would spend $6,661,242 in 2016-17 on life safety projects at Henking, Lyon, Pleasant Ridge and Springman Middle schools, and $6 million during 2017-18 on projects at Glen Grove, Hoffman, Westbrook and Attea Middle schools, according to district data.
This plan replaced a $4.1 million life safety projects list approved in June that would have been covered by financial reserves, officials said.
The life-safety projects list was submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education recently, said Eric Miller, assistant superintendent for business services.
Once the state board decides how much of the list it will approve – thus allowing District 34 to use its life safety fund to pay for them – then new debt to that amount will be issued from the life safety fund, Miller added.
Any projects not approved by the ISBE will be financed by District 34 with new debt charged to the working cash fund, Miller said.
Jon Davis is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.