Financial Crisis in Illinois Schools
Riverton CUSD #14 Budget Reductions
by Tom Mulligan
March 07, 2010
The State of Illinois is in the midst of a financial crisis. The current crisis includes the following facts: past and current financial obligations are not being met in all areas; the state has been using over $1,000,000,000 in federal stimulus money to fund state education payments (and they are still behind); the state pension obligations have been deferred for several years allowing the state liability for these systems to grow at enormous rates and also to grow to a point where they can no longer be ignored; and jobs and programs are being cuts in all areas of our state. Unfortunately, all of these things have resulted in the State of Illinois being in the midst of a $12,000,000,000 debt, with this debt projected to increase by the end of the fiscal year.
In the recent proposed budget by Governor Quinn, Riverton School District is poised to lose over $1,500,000 in revenue from the State of Illinois for next fiscal year. This type of reduction is devastating for our district. The school district has always operated on the philosophy that we wanted to maintain adequate reserve fund balances (for a time when we need it) along with providing as many programs and services to students as possible. That means when we were receiving increases in funding from the State of Illinois we were adding programs and services to make our school better. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. In a time where we are facing severe state cuts, we must make some tough decisions to cut back on some program and services, while using some of the fund balances that we have saved for just this type of situation.
It is important to note that the Riverton School District is not overspending. It is also important to note that the district has been conservative when taxing local tax payers as well. In a recent report from the Sangamon County Clerk’s Office on the 2008 Tax Levy, Riverton has the 3rd lowest tax rate of the district in Sangamon County. The overall tax rate includes voter approved bonds for building projects. In 2005, the voters of the Riverton School District approved a referendum for the recent school construction project in our district. Excluding voter approved bonds, the Riverton School District has the lowest overall tax rate in Sangamon County!
When examining overspending, it is important to look at Operating Expense Per Pupil. This represents the amount the district spends per students. The 2009 School Report Card indicated that the Riverton School District has an operating expense per pupil of $6,103. That is compared to a state average of $10,417. That is a difference of $4,304 per student. To spend what the average district in the state of Illinois spends, the Riverton District would need to spend an additional $5,810,400 (our total budget is only around $12,000,000). Riverton is also one of the lowest spending school districts in our area
The district has approached reducing the district budget with several guiding principles: use a portion of the current fund balances to help offset the significant reduction from the state; fund programs that are mandated by the state of Illinois; reduce the budget by cutting some important aspects of the budget for the short term, and reduce staff in places that we feel will have the least impact on the district’s important goals.
Portion of Fund Balances
The school district is projected to have an ending fund balance this year (ending June 30, 2010) of just over $3,000,0000. We have already received notification that we will not be receiving part of our general state aid and the state is well behind on the grants they have promised to fund for this year. We generally get 4 payments a year for these grants. To date, in many of those grants, we have received only two payments so far and in some cases they were actually the last two payments that we were owed to us from last year. The likelihood that we will receive all of the revenue we were promised when we developed this year’s budget, is very unlikely. As a result, our ending reserve fund balances will be well under the projected $3,000,000.
Mandated Programs
One of the most common programs that districts are cutting for next year is the non-special education, Pre-K Program for 3 and 4 year olds. People ask, “How can schools cuts those programs because they seem so important?” I think every educator in the State of Illinois would agree that those programs are very important. These Pre-K programs have also been a priority for the State of Illinois. Over the past several years, the state has been attempting to fund PreK programs for all kids 3 and 4 years of age. They committed substantial grant funds to directly fund those programs. Unfortunately, it seems very likely that the State of Illinois will not be providing any grant funds for those programs. As a result, our district does not feel we can fund that program with our own local funds because we would need to make additional cuts to our mandated K-12 program to be able to do that. Since the funding is uncertain, district must cuts the programs now and add them back in if the state does find funds somewhere for that program. If the State does find revenue to fund those programs for next year, our district will gladly work to reinstate that program.
Short Term Budget Cuts
The district has been looking at several cuts that can be done in the short term to try and offset the large reduction in revenue from the state. Most of these cuts are not cuts that can be done for long periods of time. They can only be done for 1 or 2 years at most. Those cuts include:
- Reduction in staff professional development, including the board of education
- Reduction in supplies, purchased services and equipment at all levels
- Reduction in technology expenditures
- Freeze on all uniform purchases for extra-curricular activities
- Freeze on textbook purchases
- Freeze on bus purchases
- Reduction in the building improvements budget
These cuts are able to save the district around $400,000 for next year’s budget.
Using the Governors projected budget for next year and including the above cuts, the district would still be facing a deficit budget of around $1,800,000. Although the district feels that we need to use our fund balances in these tough times to offset the reductions from the state, we cannot use all our find balances in one year, especially since the crisis in the State of Illinois will not be fixed in just one year.
Additional Personnel Cuts
In addition to the budget cuts listed above, the school board recently approved the following cuts:
- Reduce 5 Elementary Classroom Positions
- Reduce 3 Elementary Pre-K Teaching Positions
- Reduce 4 Teacher Overloads
- Reduce Extended Day Contracts
- Reduce Part-Time HS Math Position
- Eliminate HS Home Economics Program
- Eliminate HS English Position
- Eliminate HS Part-Time Science Position
- Reduce HS Reading Coach Half/Full Time
- Reduce MS Reading Coach/Intervention Teacher Two Periods
The reduction in the elementary school classroom will still leave the average class size in Grades K-4 below 25 students per class.
District’s Goals
As the district began to look at additional cuts, it was critical that the district first examine the district’s core goals to guide how they made the decision on what programs and services to cut. The district has four goals:
- Increase student achievement in math and reading
- Increase student achievement in the area of behavior
- Increase student engagement through classroom engagement and also through engaging students through extra-curricular activities
- Professional growth and improvement of workforce
The district is continues to look at what additional cuts will be needed to get to a reasonable deficit figure.
This has not been an easy process that has included many tough decisions. In the end, the Riverton School District is committed to maintaining the integrity of programs while remaining fiscally responsible in a climate where the State of Illinois has not!
