School District 228 Faces Deficit, But Avoids Cuts in Academic Programs

Operating at a deficit is not the way a school district, or any business, for that matter, wants to function. Unfortunately for , that's exactly what it's going to be doing during the 2011-12 school year.

With more than a $5 million shortfall this coming year, even after a fourth year of cuts, the board is already prepping for some creative thinking when it comes to the budget in the next few years.

The budget for the 2011-12 school year, which was approved during the Board of Education's monthly meeting on Tuesday at Hillcrest High School, is for $88,714,923. That figure reflects cuts of more than $100,000 to the technology budget and roughly $40,000 in cuts to the district's discretionary funds—both of which have been cut for four consecutive years.

Though those were just two of the cuts highlighted by District Treasurer Tom O'Malley, there was an increase in spending in special education funding—about $1.3 million—because of an influx of students enrolling in special education programs throughout the district.

Supt. Bill Kendall noted that the cuts made didn't affect any academic programs within the district.

“We're trying as hard as we can. We may be running out of options,” Kendall said. “For another year, we sustained our student programs, and it's everybody working together and being creative in doing that.”

Though the district is operating at a loss this year, O'Malley noted that there remains approximately $28 million in its reserves. However, he said that if things continue the way they have been going, the situation will get difficult in the near future.

“We're looking at three years of sustaining of this situation unless something changes considerably, in terms of how the states are going to fund schools and fund education,” O’Malley said. “We'll be working on that. We've got some potential plans in place to address that.”

Even with potential plans on the drawing board, the prospect of the district running out of money is something O'Malley said won't happen.

“That's not going to happen, it's never happened and we're not going to let that happen,” he said.