The $54.8 million proposed 2011-12 operational budget which Wilmette District 39 school board members approved for public display this week features conservative spending and an ongoing effort to cut costs where possible, district officials said.
The proposal also forecasts $61.1 million in revenues, much of that from tax revenue generated by the district’s successful April referendum.
School board members met Monday and approved an Aug. 22 public hearing on the budget,scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Mikaelian Education Center.
If approved, the budget foresees operational fund balances rising from $12.42 million at the start of the fiscal year, July 1, to $18.7 million at the end of June 2012.
Operational spending is up less than 1 percent from the $54.54 million the board approved for 2010. Revenues, beefed up by referendum tax money, jumped almost 23 percent from the $49.8 million board members approved in the 2010-11 operating budget.
When the district’s non-operating budget — for capital and life-safety projects as well as funds to pay down the district’s debt — are included, the complete budget stands at $58.4 million in spending and $63.2 million in revenue. Total balances, including those in the non-operating funds, will rise from $16.21 million to $21.02 million.
Superintendent Raymond Lechner told the board in his preamble to the budget that it “is a sound representation of the financial position of the district.”
As proposed, education fund spending, the largest single segment of the operating budget, stands at $47.04 million. Operations and maintenance spending has been set at $4.5 million; spending in the district’s retirement funds is expected to be $1.55 million. The district has budgeted $738,817 for its legal fund and $976,273 for its transportation fund.
The budget posits $3.58 million in spending for capital and debt service purposes, and sees $2.1 million in revenues coming in to those funds.
Until the pubic hearing, the draft proposal will be on display there, at the Wilmette Public Library, and at two local bank branches; the Wilmette branch of J.P. Morgan Chase, and at North Shore Community Bank and trust.
The draft budget is also available at District 39’s website, www.wilmette39.org, as part of the June 20 agenda package.
