Budget approved, reveals no significant changes

Despite construction costs, budget remains relatively static

Clare Mikulski, Managing Editor of Online Content

Despite the massive ongoing construction projects at both campuses, the 2014-15 annual budget does not reveal any significant changes in expenditures or revenues.

“There’s nothing in particular here that’s dramatically different from the prior year,” District 204 Business Director Brian Stachacz said. “There is, this year, in the operations and maintenance fund, $2.5 million in capital expenditures. That money is going towards the construction, the new cafeteria and the renovation of the Reber center, as well as the usual repairs on the school. Apart from the numbers being a little bit larger, everything in there is the same.”

The budget for the 2014-15 operating fund is projected to be $71.6 million, which is a 1.45% increase from the 2013-14 budget of $70.6 million.

“I wouldn’t call it a change [in the budget],” Superintendent Dr. Kilrea said. “It’s a budget that we adjust every year based upon revenues. When you’re talking about a $70 million budget, and believe me [$1.7 million] is a significant amount of money, but that usually is tied to what our CPI [Consumer Price Index] increase is.”

The budget accounts for a variety of school expenditures.

“The school district looks at salaries, benefits, purchased services, supplies, capital outlay, and then any other objects that would fall under tuition for outside of district students,” Stachacz said. “So really it’s all of those things combined.”

While the amount of money District 204 plans on spending is not drastically larger than previous years, the release of the budget provides an opportunity to highlight LT’s triple-A bond rating.

“Obviously we never want to spend more than we have coming in, and we adjust our expenditures accordingly,” Kilrea said.

The ability of District 204 to avoid deficit spending has left LT with a triple-A bond rating, a rating assigned to only a handful of schools in Illinois.

“It’s a good budget,” Kilrea said. “Our board does not deficit spend, we try to avoid that at all costs, and in eight years I haven’t seen it happen.”