In advance of contract negotiations, CTC
(the union representing CCSD15 teachers) started an ad
campaign to discredit financial claims made by the
school administration. In their
ad CTC suggests the district has a history of
"grossly inaccurate projections", obviously to convey
the impression the district routinely underestimates
revenue.
For 2008 CTC demonstrates the district
budgeted for a deficit of $2.5 million but experienced a
deficit of only $206,000. So, it must have "found" over
$2 million in unanticipated revenue, right? Wrong.
Actual revenue came in $1.6 million less than projected.
The reason for the lower ending deficit was the district
took aggressive cost savings steps throughout the year
to minimize the ending red ink.
For 2010 CTC claims the district
projected a budget deficit of $1.2 million but actually
experienced a surplus of $6.8 million. While true, when
the district drew up the original budget it could not
possibly have known the effect of two one-time
windfalls. About $5 million came from a change in how
Cook County collected taxes, which simply advanced the
collection of taxes from the next budget year while not
increasing them. About $3 million more came from
temporary Federal Stimulus funds. Was this really poor
forecasting?
CTC's most recent ad looks at the fund
balances of past years to suggest projections of a
declining fund balance in future years is somehow
flawed. Are they disputing the projected future revenue
growth based on the Consumer Price Index? Are they
disputing the projected expense for wages and benefits
based upon the existing union contract? We don't know as
they are silent on both.
CTC fails to recognize that it has
been mostly cost containment actions that have produced
the past financial results they presented. As such, per
the Illinois Interactive Report Card CCSD15 now has the
highest class size of its three closest neighboring
districts after having eliminated 132 teachers since
2002. Suggesting those same past financial results will
magically occur in the future without something giving
is just wishful thinking. Let’s hope that the “something
giving” is not even higher class sizes, essentially
funding our deficits on the backs of our kids.
On March 1st Citizens For Accountability held a public
meeting at the library. Here is the
presentation
that was given.
If you have trouble
downloading the presentation, try updating Adobe Reader:
Citizens For
Accountability in District 15 Update
Last Wednesday, February 8th, Citizens
for Accountability and a number of other residents of
D15 addressed the Board of Education at its monthly
meeting. If
you were not able to make it to meeting, please take few
moments to read the presentations (presentation
1 and
presentation 2).
Where to find information:
Our Recommendations and Financial
Analysis are on the Links on the right side of this page.
To access the district's
budget documents and financial reports, visit
www.ccsd15.net.
What you can do to help:
The Board needs your support as they
attempt to rein in the excessive spending pattern that
has plagued our school district for the last 10 years
and return to spending within our means. There are two
ways to help:
1) Attend a Meeting - Below are important
dates of upcoming meetings where you can show your
support:
Saturday, Feb. 25th BOE Community
Communications Forum
District Office
near the Palatine Library 9 am - 11 am
Wednesday, March 14th BOE Regular
Meeting Sundling Jr
High on Smith St. 7 pm
2) Send an Email - Email
the Board members and Superintendent Thompson.
Please take a moment to let them know how you feel. It
does not have to a time-consuming task; just a quick
note of your support for our recommendations or your own
suggestions is appreciated.
If you have any questions, please send
us an email (link on top of page).
Sincerely,
Citizens for Accountability in D15
Citizens for Accountability
Addresses the Budget Crisis
Important decisions are going to be made which will directly
affect our community in order to address the huge deficit
District 15 is facing.
Superintendent Thompson has presented his list of possible
recommendations. The executive committee of Citizens for
Accountability in D15 has been spending many hours analyzing the
financial situation and we've constructed our own list of
recommendations (see below).
Residents served by Community Consolidated School District 15
(CCSD15) will be faced with several choices in the coming year
to address forthcoming budget deficits. The latest 5-Year
financial forecast shows that current spending and revenue
patterns will deplete District reserve funds by the end of 2016.(1)
Here are the year-by-year forecast numbers:
Year
Ending
Revenue Forecast
Spending Forecast
(Deficit)
Fund Balance
2012
$137,865,977
$144,473,760
($6,607,783)
$48,426,503
2013
$140,046,267
$149,661,677
($9,615,410)
$38,811,8093
2014
$145,035,524
$155,125,027
($10,089,503)
$28,721,590
2015
$147,891,844
$159,620,915
($11,729,071)
$16,992,519
2016
$151,529,049
$164,379,805
($12,850,756)
$4,141,673
The District’s Fund Balance (essentially our “checking”
account) on June 30th, 2011 was $55,521,145. If the revenues
and spending come in as forecasted, the Fund Balance on June
30th, 2016 will shrink to $4,823,596. Because of uneven cash
flow from revenue sources, the balances available in 2015 and
2016 could mean the District might not be able to meet its
obligations without resorting to borrowing against future tax
revenues. These short term loans are called Tax Anticipation
Warrants and like any loan carry an interest cost which will
only add to the growing deficit.
Not included in the budget forecast is the “On Behalf of”
payment by the State of Illinois, in the amount of
$17,871,274 dollars to the Teachers Retirement System for
Teachers in CCSD-15. This amount while not collected in
property taxes levied by the District, comes from income taxes
paid to the state by the residents of District 15. Therefore,
total taxpayer funded expenditures for the 2012-13 school year
in CCSD-15 is on the order of $172,738,963 dollars(4).
While spending in all 8 funds needs to be put under a
microscope, the Educational Fund, which accounts for 79% of
total spending, would seem an obvious place to review and
analyze not only the absolute dollars spent but the growth or
shrinkage patterns within the fund.
Like any organization that delivers a service, in this case the
education of our children, a significant majority of the cost to
deliver the service is for people. Please click on the links
below to see more detail about the problem and proposed actions
to address the structural problem in the District’s Budget.
Notes
and Sources
1. Report to the Board of
Education from the CCSD15 Office of Business & Auxiliary
Services
2. TRS is the Illinois
Teacher Retirement System
3. Report to the Board of
Education from the CCSD15 Office of Business & Auxiliary
Services
4. This value assumes that the “On Behalf of”
dollars are equal to the 2011-12 dollars. The final figure will
be determined when the budget is submitted.
