Distict 219 To Trim Preliminary Budget

The Niles Township High School District 219 school board last Wednesday asked administrators to go back and trim some spending in the preliminary budget that was first presented to them in late May. 

The first draft of the budget that the board looked at included $147.3 million in planned spending, which could have raised the district’s operating expense per pupil to more than $26,000, a 7.63 percent increase.

Revenue in the original draft was projected to rise 4.33 percent to $152.8 million, with 95 percent coming from local sources, chiefly property taxes.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the board asked administrators to trim the budget by both cutting money that they don’t really expect to spend and reducing planned spending in areas where they have the discretion to do so.

If the school board does not vote to post a tentative budget for public review on Monday, it will have to push back the schedule for formally adopting it, with a final vote coming in September, rather than August, as originally planned.

Superintendent Nanciann Gatta has generally tried to have the board approve the budget in August, but there is no legal requirement to do so.

Basically, the board asked that contingency funds – money included in the budget to handle unexpected circumstances -- be trimmed back to amounts closer to what the district realistically expects to spend, based on spending patterns from previous years, said Jim Szczepaniak, the district’s director of communication.

While salaries and benefits for most staff, which represents the largest spending category, have been fixed by collective bargaining agreements, the district does have leeway in other areas, Szczepaniak noted, such as purchased services. The board asked that the administration remove any planned spending increases in that area.

At the May 31 school board meeting, Gatta told board members she already expected to change the line item for administrator salaries. The preliminary budget assumed a 1.52 percent increase in spending on administrator salaries, but Gatta said she did want any increase in that area.

School board members have focused on operating expense per pupil because it was second highest in the state for high school districts in 2009, the last year for which complete statewide numbers are available.