Despite extensive staffing cuts and the shuttering of schools, Evanston-Skokie School District 65 is expected to operate its 2027 fiscal year under a roughly $5 million deficit, CFO Eric Miller voiced to a grim-faced Board at their Aug. 31 meeting.
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The tentative budget deficit includes a $3.625 million payment for remaining construction costs at the newly-opened Foster School in Evanston’s 5th Ward.
“It’s important to distinguish the reported result from the district’s recurring operating position,” Miller clarified to Board members Monday, citing that only $1.45 million of the district’s budget deficit will remain after the one-time Foster School payment is complete.
According to Miller, long-term planning for expenditures will focus only on recurring operating expenses and revenues. The tentative FY27 budget will become the baseline for District 65’s updated five-year projections.
If the Board gives the budget final approval later this month, the district will be left with as little as 77 days of cash on hand by the end of the fiscal year, officials clarified. This is well below the Illinois State Board of Education’s 180-day recommendation for local school districts.
“I’m sitting here trying to reconcile what we’re seeing,” Board member Andrew Wymer said after being briefed of the financial shortfall.
“We won’t be in compliance with our own Board policy of 90 days cash on hand…it’s something we really need to consider if we’re going to be in breach of our policy.”
Miller added that even with the intended building sale of the now-defunct Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, the district likely wouldn’t meet its 90 day self-imposed cash minimum.
Wymer countered by asking why the property sale was left out of upcoming revenue projections, after being included in prior ones.
“Given the fact that it’s a sale of the building, these things take time, a lot of details [need] to be worked out and I just think it’s a long timeline to get there,” Miller said.
“We thought it’d be best not to count on it and that ties into the second reason…I don’t want the Board or the community to think that one-time revenue streams are something we can rely on to solve this recurring expense challenge that we have.”
Despite significant budget reductions — over $6 million — implemented by the Board last spring for the upcoming year, the savings were not nearly enough to offset what would be required to maintain even minimal levels of progress.
Approximately $145.7 million in district revenue, or 81%, comes from property taxes. This upcoming year, officials expect a $2.5 million reduction to that same source of income.
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Rising costs for transportation and special education are also to blame. According to Miller, administrative salaries and benefits remain the largest recurring costs and are expected to continue to place pressure on the district’s long-term financial outlook.
“It seems to be a recurring theme, we find savings and the costs go up, almost as much if not more.”
Looking beyond 2027, “early indicators suggest that the financial challenge may be larger and more persistent” than previously anticipated, which intensifies the need to be transparent about available funds, Miller added.
“Even though I don’t like it, and I don’t like being below 90 days cash on hand, I would much rather have a realistic budget that we can stick to and that we can all plan for than to be surprised throughout the year,” Board member Mya Wilkins said Monday.
Interim Superintendent Eric Witherspoon noted that throughout the upcoming year, district officials will be “constantly looking for efficiencies” and ways to “capture dollars if it’s very evident that they’re available.”
Following a preliminary unanimous approval vote, the budget will be back before the Board for a final decision Sept. 28.