District 115 School Board Reviews Surplus Budget Proposal

Stating a desire for transparency, Yorkville Community Unit School unveiled its detailed — albeit tentative — budget for the 2012 fiscal year Monday.

District Business Manager Jacqui Parisi outlined the budget proposal, which projects a surplus of a little more than $1.36 million. The 45-minute presentation touched on the district’s revenue assumptions and expected expenditures, using itemized lists to highlight specific projects.

“It’s far more comprehensive and detailed than what the board has gotten in the past, but we want to be transparent,” District Superintendent Scott Wakeley said. “This is where the money is, and this is how we’re planning to use it.”

Calling Parisi’s presentation “very thorough,” board members voted 7-0 in favor of placing the proposal on public display.

The proposal will be on display at the district office and Yorkville Public Library from Thursday to Sept. 26. The board will have a budget hearing at 7 p.m. Sept. 26 to discuss changes and decide if the proposal should be adopted for 2012.

Using a new zero-based budgeting system that required the approval of every line item of the budget, the 2012 proposal projects a continuation of all district programs.

The following items were among those highlighted at Monday’s meeting:

• An assumption of $2.07 million in general state aid.

• Operation and maintenance placeholders for a new plow and salt spreader ($51,000), replacement lockers ($30,000) and press box and band room renovations ($70,000).

• More than $776,000 in placeholders for life safety projects, including roofing at ($201,011), occupancy sensors ($71,986) and track renovations ($212,537) at and stadium lights ($290,976).

The proposal estimates total revenue of about $59.09 million and expenditures totaling a little more than $57.72 million. Those figures could change over the next few weeks.

The proposal “really, I think, shows the community that we’ve been fiscally responsible,” Wakeley said.

Monday’s budget presentation featured a recap of the 2011 fiscal year, for which the district had projected a deficit of $1.43 million.

But a combination of higher-than-expected revenues and lower expenditures actually yielded a surplus of more than $5.22 million, a figure that — while slightly inflated — had the district feeling accomplished.

“Our goal was to balance the budget,” Wakeley said. “Live within the money that we knew we were going to get.”

In reality, the district got more money than it planned for.

The highlights included a June tax collection that was 2 percent more than expected (resulting in an additional $1.4 million), an unplanned payment from the state ($980,000) and $243,000 in general state aid.

The district also cut expenses by only spending approximately $50,000 of the $317,000 earmarked for life safety and ditching plans for purchasing a new phone system ($75,000) and a new truck or tractor ($45,000).

Parisi did caution that the surplus figure was slightly inflated because some of the expenses the district slashed in 2011 — for example the truck, which is included in the 2012 proposal — won’t be avoided for long.

“It’s this year that we’re going to have those expenditures,” Parisi said. “So it’s kind of a delayed expenditure.”

Parisi said the budget recap used unaudited numbers. The district’s audit of the 2011 fiscal year should be completed by mid-October.

One of the board presentations from Monday's meeting is attached to this article as a PDF. Readers also can review other district's budget documents online at BoardDocs. The budget is item 8.03 on Monday's agenda.