The Park Ridge Niles School District 64 school board got its first look last week at the draft operating budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
It projects that the district will spend $77.2 million and collect revenues of $76.7 million, according to Chief School Business Officer Luann Kolstad.
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The spending plan should be considered a “working budget” that will be revised up until the budget is adopted by the board, Kolstad said at the June 11 meeting.
“This is typically where we start,” Kolstad said.
The budget for the 2019 fiscal year is expected to grow 1 percent, Kolstad said. It includes a $500,000 contingency fund for emergencies.
District 64 officials have not yet received the the draft tax levy from the Cook County treasurer’s office, Kolstad told the board. Property taxes make up 85 percent of the district’s revenues, records show.
In addition, the Maine Township treasurer’s office has not provided estimates for Interest on investments based on the district’s current investment, Kolstad said.
It is also not yet clear how much state and federal aid the district will receive, Kolstad said.
Assistant Chief School Business Officer Brian Imhoff said the budget was built on a lot of unknowns.
“We expect the deficit to come down,” Imhoff said.
The board will consider the budget again at its meeting set for June 25. That revised version will include an additional $140,000 in tax revenue created by new construction in the district. In addition, the district will save $384,000 by hiring only four new teachers rather than 11 as initially expected, Imhoff said.
The board unanimously endorsed a plan to hire three new teachers for the district’s extended kindergarten program to accommodate 50 more students next year as compared with this year — 25 more in the morning program and 25 more in the afternoon program.
There are currently 40 students on the extended day program’s waiting list, Jefferson Principal Lisa Halverson said.
A proposal to fund a full-day kindergarten program at all of the district’s elementary schools would be presented to the board in the fall, Superintendent Laurie Heinz said. That may require district officials to ask voters to approve a referendum, she added.
District officials will also continue to work on budgets for each department in the coming weeks, as well as with Lea Anne Frost, who starts July 1 as the director of student services and will oversee the district’s special education programs, Kolstad said.
The board unanimously endorsed a plan to hire an elementary social worker, a behavior interventionist, psychologist as well as a third assistant principal at Emerson Middle School, where the student population is growing. Those recommendations were made by former interim Student Services Director Mike Padavic to improve the district’s special education programs.
Several parents of students in special education programs urged the board to do more to address deficiencies identified by an audit released in May.
“We are trying to add staff as we see the need,” Heinz said.
The board discussed whether to also hire a third assistant principal at Lincoln Middle School, but Heinz told the board the need at Lincoln — which has approximately 200 fewer students than Emerson — was not acute.
Only board Vice President Rick Biagi disagreed, although board Secretary Tom Sotos said he was wanted to make sure that students at Emerson and Lincoln were treated fairly.
The final approval of the budget is set for Sept. 24, in advance of the state-mandated deadline of Sept. 30.