West Central District #235 2011-2012 Budget

By Grimm, Ralph

September 23, 2011

This is a brief explanation of the FY 12 District Budget that was shared with the Board at the September 21, 2011, Board meeting. Please direct any questions about this document or the district budget to Superintendent Ralph Grimm (309) 627-2371.

FY 12 Budget
General Statements and Assumptions

September 21, 2011

General Information

Key Points:

This budget is a deficit budget in the amount of $633,607

Total budgeted expenditures are decreased $195,282

General State Aid is down $372,000

The district has 174 full and part time employees as of today, September 13, 2011. Of that total, 29 are part-time. Of the 29 part-time employees, 21 are bus drivers

The Amended FY 11 budget that was approved in May of 2010 called for total expenditures of $10,254,468. Our actual FY2011 expenditures were $9,162,548.

Our budgeted expenditures for FY 11 are $10,002,411. This is a difference of $195,282 from the FY 11 budget to the FY 12 budget. This is a 1.91% decrease from one budget year to the next. This is the second year in a row that our budget expenditures have decreased from the previous year.

Key point to remember as we think about the FY 12 District budget:

The state of Illinois ended FY 11 OWING District 235 $510,128.56.

We received $2,045,685 in an early FY 12 property tax distribution from the county clerk
this year. That money shows up on our FY 11 books and not in the FY 12 books.

In order to avoid having to do a deficit budget reduction plan (a ridiculous requirement from ISBE) I am including local property tax revenue amounts for FY 12 that are based on the County continuing to make an early distribution of local property tax money in FY 12 as they did in FY 11.

This budget uses a GSA Foundation level of $6,119 per student. However; we know already that the Illinois Legislators did not appropriate enough money in the GSA line item in the FY 12 budget to pay all statewide GSA claims so we have been informed that we will not receive our 22nd payment and our 21st GSA payment will be prorated. This means a loss of $141,462 of GSA that we are entitled to for FY 12 that we will not see due to the underfunding of GSA by the legislators. There is a possibility that the legislators will approve a “supplemental appropriation” bill during the fall veto override session but I am not holding my breath until that happens.

This loss of our entitled GSA is on top of a loss of approximately $230,000 in GSA for FY 12 due to our declining enrollment. Total GSA loss anticipated in FY 12 compared to FY 11 is approximately $372,000.

This budget assumes we will receive Three transportation payments from the state. We should receive 6 payments from the state: 2 from FY 11 and 4 from FY 12. As of this date, we have received ONE transportation payments from the state and they have been identified as the third FY 11 payment. We have been told that we will not receive our FY 11 4TH quarter payment. The Governor just eliminated that payment from the books.

As for the FY12 payments, I have budget $475,000 in state reimbursement. I have no idea whether or not that is a realistic guess or not. I anticipate needing to put more GSA in the transportation fund going forward in order to keep that fund solvent. I also anticipate needing to continue loaning money to the transportation fund from the working cash fund going forward.

This budget assumes that we will receive approximately $275,000 of Early Childhood money as flow through from the Regional Office of Education. It also reflects the receipt of approximately $86,000 of FY 11 money received in FY 12.

This budget also assumes full payment of all mandated categorical reimbursements. We have received full payment of the mandated categoricals from FY 11.

This budget includes a $19,700 payment to TRS as a penalty for an early retirement of a certified teacher at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. I have also budgeted approximately $20,000 to pay the early retirement incentive as per the contract for seven certified teachers.

This budget relies more heavily on local money than in past year. This is because our federal grant allocations have decreased and our state grants have decreased or been eliminated.

This budget includes only $175,000 of General State Aid being deposited into the Building Fund again this year. The Building Fund continues to operate at a significant deficit this year and this is something that will need to be addressed in the future.

We are depositing $150,000 of General State Aid in the Transportation Fund this year. This is the only the second time that I have felt the need to deposit GSA into this fund. I am doing this primarily so that we can continue to keep a reserve in that fund.

I fully expect to have to amend this budget in May of 2012 as we did this year.

Basic Assumptions
The district EAV will continue to increase slightly. This will be an issue at the December board meeting when we set the levy. We are not currently accessing all of the EAV that we can.
General State Aid will continue to decline as our EAV continues to increase and our student enrollment decreases. We must work harder to get the students we do have to attend school on a more regular basis.

Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax revenue will continue to decline due to the slowdown in the state economy.

Interest revenue will continue to remain low due to extremely low interest rates.

Local revenue from sources other than property taxes will decrease slightly as our student enrollment declines. (student fees, book rental fees, breakfast and lunch revenue, etc)

Our categorical reimbursements (federal and state grants) will continue to decline and will not fully fund the programs they are intended to support (Early Childhood, Title I)