Post by title1parent on Dec 7, 2009 22:49:38 GMT -5
Dear District 204 Community,
At Monday night's board of education meeting we discussed the current economy's impact on our district. The $13 billion deficit in Illinois ranks our state third in the nation, behind California and Michigan, in financial troubles. Decreased state funds, combined with the slow down in local tax revenue, created a projected $9.2 million deficit for our district for 2011.
With the goal of achieving a balanced budget for 2011, we asked for input on ways to reduce our deficit. We asked building administrators and also looked to our community. Our Citizens Financial Advisory Committee reviewed nearly 200 suggestions from the community and also made its own recommendations.
Over the past few months, we spent a great deal of time reviewing all suggestions with a priority of minimizing the impact to academic programs. The recommendation presented to the board focused on six areas: revenue enhancements, delayed expenditures, operational efficiencies, staffing efficiencies, health benefit efficiencies, and program efficiencies.
Our list of budget recommendations contains 30 items such as consolidating high school courses with lower enrollments, reducing operations and maintenance outlay, slowing down the technology refresh cycle, reviewing health benefit claims, increasing building rental fees, and eliminating six central office staff positions. You can see the complete budget presentation on the district's website at www.ipsd.org/Uploads/news_26655_1.pdf
While this is our first recommendation, we have more work to do. Over the coming months we need to work on developing implementation plans for the items the board approves. We will continue to communicate with you as we move forward with the budget.
If you would like to see the video of the budget presentation from the board meeting, it will be available on Tuesday, December 8, at www.ipsd.org.
Kathy Birkett
Superintendent
At Monday night's board of education meeting we discussed the current economy's impact on our district. The $13 billion deficit in Illinois ranks our state third in the nation, behind California and Michigan, in financial troubles. Decreased state funds, combined with the slow down in local tax revenue, created a projected $9.2 million deficit for our district for 2011.
With the goal of achieving a balanced budget for 2011, we asked for input on ways to reduce our deficit. We asked building administrators and also looked to our community. Our Citizens Financial Advisory Committee reviewed nearly 200 suggestions from the community and also made its own recommendations.
Over the past few months, we spent a great deal of time reviewing all suggestions with a priority of minimizing the impact to academic programs. The recommendation presented to the board focused on six areas: revenue enhancements, delayed expenditures, operational efficiencies, staffing efficiencies, health benefit efficiencies, and program efficiencies.
Our list of budget recommendations contains 30 items such as consolidating high school courses with lower enrollments, reducing operations and maintenance outlay, slowing down the technology refresh cycle, reviewing health benefit claims, increasing building rental fees, and eliminating six central office staff positions. You can see the complete budget presentation on the district's website at www.ipsd.org/Uploads/news_26655_1.pdf
While this is our first recommendation, we have more work to do. Over the coming months we need to work on developing implementation plans for the items the board approves. We will continue to communicate with you as we move forward with the budget.
If you would like to see the video of the budget presentation from the board meeting, it will be available on Tuesday, December 8, at www.ipsd.org.
Kathy Birkett
Superintendent