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February 24, 2011

 

OUTRAGE has been informed Bourbonnais Elementary School District Superintendent Palomba sent out the e-mail below to district employees.  Seems Superintendent Palomba is no-longer talking about putting a property tax increase referendum on the ballot like he did last year..  Maybe the real world is finally sinking in. As some of you know, Palomba came here from Wisconsin.

He mentions the district does not have a contract with the teachers union (BEA).  The current contract is up this school year.  For information on salaries for teachers, administrators and Superintendent Palomba along with property tax history click here. 

 

 

 
To all Staff,
 
I realize it seems to become a tired refrain when I talk of budget challenges.  We all know from personal experience if the money isn't there, we can't spend it.  Well, developing the public school budget in Illinois is a bit of guess work, some fortune telling, hope and good intention. The bottom line is also that if the money isn't there, we can't plan to spend it. The State of Illinois is one of the most financially challenged states in the country.  The State has delayed paying many of its bills.  The school district was still receiving categorical state aid payments for last year's expenditures in December of 2010.  Superintendents are being told that districts would be lucky to receive one of the four payments for this year's expenditures.
 
 
 
In order to plan possible budget scenarios for the upcoming school year, superintendents need to make certain assumptions regarding revenues and expenditures.  The State legislature has just begun working on next year's State  budget.  To date I have been told by our legislators to plan on a 5% reduction in general state aid (GSA).  This year's amount is $6,119 per pupil and a 5% reduction would cut approximately $800,000 in revenue.  At the same time, the Governor submitted a budget proposal that increased the GSA amount to $6,268 instead of the decrease foretold by our legislators. The "middle ground will not be defined until the State Legislature completes the budget process sometime in July or August.
 
 
 
Needless to say, planning for the correct level of expenditures when you have such a wide margin in possible revenue makes budget development a bit of a guessing game.  Regrettably, as we develop the budget, we need to take the worst case scenario into consideration.  Approximately 75% of the district budget goes to pay salary and benefit costs of all district employees.  The remaining 25% of the budget has to be committed to inescapable costs like fuel, electricity, gas for heat and instructional supplies. Our local congressman was quoted as forecasting fuel prices exceeding $4.50 a gallon by this summer, and increased fuel costs "trickle down" to other areas where we need to budget.
 
 
 
Last year, we were forced to make many hard choices and as result, reduced over $1.5 million in expenditures.  We changed many things that we had previously taken for granted such as the back to school luncheon and Christmas ham.  Unfortunately, we do not have the same kinds of choices in developing next year's budget because many of last year's cuts are now gone and can't be made again.  This year we will have to focus on staff reduction to balance the budget.
 
 
 
Because we are required to notify teachers that they will be laid off or not asked to return by the end of March, we need to make staffing decisions four to five months before we have a firm understanding of our expected revenue.  To this end, the administration of the school district begins to discuss staffing as early as late January.
 
 
 
This year not only do we not know what our revenues are going to be, we also do not have a contract with the BEA and therefore we do not have a firm understanding of our anticipated expenditures.  Referring back to my earlier statement that we need to plan for the "worst case scenario" I wanted to inform you that I will be meeting with the administrators to identify staff reductions for next school year to be presented to the Board at their March 29th board meeting.  The preliminary "worst case scenario" requires that we reduce at least 20 positions.  I anticipate that we will focus on non-classroom positions where possible and I will ask the administrators to work to define ways we can reduce costs related to various extra duties.  I do anticipate that class sizes will be increasing.  I wanted to provide everyone with this early notice so that there will not be any surprises when the 2011-2012 staffing plan is presented to the Board next month.
 
Myron V. Palomba, Ph.D.