Dist. 135 Budget: What Orland Needs To Know For Monday's Meeting

ORLAND PARK, IL — District 135 officials are back to square one in figuring out how to trim more than $2.5 million from its budget now that the school board has rolled back cuts it approved in February.

At a meeting Monday, the board is expected to ask for the public's help to determine what cuts will be acceptable, and are expected to form a special committee made up of district officials, parents and other interested community members to do that.

Here's what you need to know ahead of those budget preparations, based on documents and interviews with John Bryk, director of finance and Laura Berry, school board president:

FINANCIAL PICTURE

Budget: $83.1 million
Revenue:$80.5 million
Difference: $2.6 million
Laura Berry: "We’re not in any trouble, but we’re not where we need to be. We are running a deficit budget, which is something we are of course concerned about. We still have the reserves we need. The state requires 25% and we're well above that."

STUDENT PROFILE

Number of students: 5,121
Low income: 15%
English-language learners: 12% (this is important later)
Students with disabilities: 18%

TAXES

Tax levy: 2.979 cents for every $100 of EAV
John Bryk: According to Bryk, the district retired debt in 2014 and did so to reduce taxes. Property tax appeals, an ongoing process, bit into some revenue. He said that between 2008 and 2017, the district had to rebate slightly more than $10 million because of the appeals. Those came largely from businesses in the area. Also, the district decided not to capture the CPI rate for four years in each of the fiscal years from 2013 to 2016. By keeping a flat levy, the district bypassed $14 million, he said. Looking farther back, the equalized assessed value dropped to about $1.8 billion during the 2008 recession from a peak of $2.5 billion. It takes a year or two for the levy to change as a result, he said. "That was a dramatic shift for us," Bryk added.

MAJOR EXPENSES

Math intervention specialists: Federal mandates required the district to hire the equivalent of 7.5 teaching positions.
English-language teachers: The ELL population tripled over the past five years, requiring the district to hire 13 teachers.
Full-day kindergarten: The district moved to full-day kindergarten three years ago, a switch that doubled the number of teachers to 22 from 11.
1:1 student device initiative: The district added three technology coaches to assist with the transition.
Laura Berry: "We had no control over state mandates...more math teachers is a good thing. No one could argue that having math interventionists or teachers to help those learning a language are not extremely important. But we all know the story of how unfunded mandates can wreak havoc on a budget. With full-day kindergarten...this was based on what was Common Core Standards and getting ready for college and careers. Learning in kindergarten is much different now. And having a top-notch school district — not having a 1:1 computer initiative would be a disservice in the 21st century. It's extremely important, but it has been costly."

CUTS

Savings since 2017: $1.08 million, by losing bus and lunch-duty personnel, decentralizing registration, staff attrition and other measures.
Rescinded: Five full-time elementary enrichment staff positions, phasing out honors Spanish and German, as well as honors science and social studies.
Options considered in the past (and that are back on the table):Losing media specialists, cutting stipends for team leaders, eliminating district-sponsored field trips, converting debt certificates to bonds, eliminating an assistant principal and other measures. (Please note Laura Berry corrected me on March 7: Media specialists are off the table.)
Among the more controversial measures: Increasing class size and asking voters to raise the tax levy. These have not yet been fully proposed.
Laura Berry: "We’re going to have to ask for as many places as we can to cut that are as palatable as possible to parents and the school district without decreasing the level of service we all expect. It's very difficult."

LESSONS LEARNED

Board/district/parent communication: One thing Berry said that became very clear what that the district needed to change the way it communicated with parents. Although public meetings were held about the budget, parents did not know about them or were unable to attend them, and the cuts caught many people off guard. Berry said the district will be looking into new ways of communicating with parents, and will be looking for ways to record its meetings and put them online so parents can watch them later.
Berry: "We're really trying. We're trying to listen and I think parents can see us asking questions. I am looking forward to having collaborations with parents in the future."