D-15 Approves Budget With $6.4 Million Deficit

School District 15 approved a budget Aug. 10 for the 2011-2012 school year with a projected deficit of $6.4 million.

Despite the deficit for this school year's budget, District 15 still will have more than $48.8 million in reserve funds. However, school officials believe that annual deficits could consume the reserve funds in a matter of years, leaving District 15 in a precarious financial position.

"Our financial health is really deteriorating fast," school board member Manjula Sriram. "These numbers are very, very scary right now."

In January, had the annual deficit growing to about $12 million by fiscal year 2015-2016.

Accoding to District 15's 2011-2012 budget, the school district will have $143.7 million in revenue and about $150.2 million in expenditures.

The operating budget deficit is about $5.1 million, school board member Scott Herr said.

So far the school board has resisted making cuts that would increase class sizes.

The school board initiated talks with the district's union – the Classrooom Teachers' Council – in August despite the fact the current contract runs through August 2012.

The talks ended in April with the two sides issuing a .

The Education Fund, which includes teacher salaries and benefits and is primarily funded through property tax revenue has a deficit of $3.4 million in the 2011-2012 budget.

District 15's financial documents are online.

Salaries in the Education Fund are increasing 3.2 percent from $83.4 million to more than $86.1 million.

Property tax revenues for the district are increasing by 4.6 percent. Next budget year that is expected to fall to 1.3 percent in the following fiscal year.