West Aurora School District is examining the best ways to use about $40 million in federal pandemic relief funds the district expects to receive over the next three years.
In part due to the funds, the district is looking at a proposed balanced budget for the 2021-22 school year.
“We were able to achieve this with the large inflows of (federal) funds coupled with conservative budgeting on the expense side,” West Aurora School District Finance Director Ryan Abrahamson said in an emailed response to questions. “Department budgets were held flat or decreased unless they dedicated more funding to student and family engagement, which is a point of emphasis for the district.”
The board recently reviewed a tentative budget showing operating expenditures at an estimated $185 million, an increase of $12.2 million – or 7% – over the 2020-21 budget.
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The district’s operating revenues are projected at $187.3 million, an increase of $13 million – or 7.4% – over the 2020-21 budget, according to district officials.
The district’s budget for salaries is $101.3 million, an increase of $5.3 million – or 5.5% – according to school board documents.
West Aurora like other districts must decide how to use its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding from the federal government, Abrahamson said.
“The main challenge when developing this budget was effectively utilizing the temporary (federal) funds,” he said. “We want to make the most impact we can, keeping in mind these funds will only be available for the next three school years.”
The district has allocated a portion of the funds already, West Aurora School District Assistant Superintendent of Operations Angie Smith told The Beacon-News.
“Given that we have until 2024 to spend all of the funds, we continue to evaluate projects and look at our needs to determine the best way to allocate those dollars,” Smith said. “This year we added additional teachers to keep class sizes lower where building space allowed and to provide instructional support as we work to attend to some of the damage done by the pandemic. We also allocated dollars to some of our buildings in need of (heating and cooling) improvements,” Smith said.
“For years we have dealt with the challenges of limited state and federal funding, but large inflows of funds have their own set of challenges, especially when we know they are temporary,” she said.
The temporary nature of the federal funds narrows the options on which to spend the money, Smith said.
“We can’t take on long-term commitments with short-term funds,” she said.
However, the funding helps the district’s overall financial picture.
“We are excited to once again have a balanced budget and even more excited that students are back in our buildings,” Smith said.
District data is showing elementary school enrollment continues to decline as it has done for the past eight years. Middle school enrollment has fluctuated with an increase in the 2018-19 school year but it, too, has shown a steady decline every year, according to board documents.
“Our high school enrollment has been fairly flat,” Abrahamson told the board.
Registration began to pick up prior to the start of the first day of full in-person learning Aug. 18, he said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.