School finance and student fee increases
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The following is a portion of a letter sent on June 16 to Illinois State General Assembly members on the issue of the Chester School District's financial situation. This information has been given out throughout the year as well.
The use of the ending balances from the 2010/2011 school year discount the fact that in August of 2011 Chester CUSD #139 was informed that we would be prorated approximately $194,000 in General State Aid payments for the 11/12 school year. Transportation was also cut to 42% of the 10/11 school year. The total for these two cuts comes to approximately $275,000.
The ending balances for 10/11 includes $357,000 in ARRA Education Jobs funds. These funds were taken over one year (2010/11). They will not be available in the future.
The State of Illinois currently owes Chester CUSD #139 $526,625 in mandated categorical and grant payments for this school year. We are not sure exactly what the State will pay the amount owed.
Chester CUSD #139 is under PTELL, sometimes referred to as property tax caps. Tax caps mean that shortfalls occur in Tort and IMRF for our district because adding to the levy in these two funds means taking away the same amount from other funds. Therefore, portions of General State Aid payments must be used to cover shortages in Tort and IMRF each year as inflation is outrunning the growth in each of these levies. Also, due to PTELL, we will also not be able to keep up with increased payments under the proposed 'pension reform'.
Chester CUSD #139 will also be prorated 5% in Title funds in fiscal year '13. The district will lose money due to new rules being put into place that do not allow for any carryover of funds from the previous fiscal year. The new rule on disallowing carryover from one fiscal year to the next was given to the districts in April of 2012. Superintendents budget with carryover as a contingency. This is just another way of the State and Federal government changing the rules as they go.
The State budget for this year will cut an unknown amount of money from our budget. Chester school district is heavily reliant on non-local funding (approximately 66%). Therefore cuts in General State Aid disproportionately hurts districts like ours. We have 54% of our students at Chester Elementary and 31% at the high school who are eligible for free/reduced lunch. We use this to represent the number of students who live in poverty. The cuts that are in the current state budget to GSA and to free/reduced lunch will hurt students that are the most in-need.
I understand that many financial issues are occurring with the State. However, the issues I have addressed above are creating situations that will have drastic effects on the education of the students in the Chester School District as well as many other districts in the state. The Governor and members of the General Assembly have passed, and continue to pass, many pieces of legislation to "improve" education. They continue to espouse the importance of education, but yet fail to fund it at an equitable or even at a reliable level.
On Monday, July 2, a special meeting was held of the Chester CUSD #139 School Board. Among the topics discussed was an increase in student fees. Due to the issues that the State is having when it pertains to funding our district at an appropriate level, the School Board took action on Monday night to raise student fees instead of cutting back on programs for the 2012/13 school year.
The fee increases include:
$.30 increase for lunches/breakfast
$40 fee per sport for students
Registration fees will go from $36 at the elementary and $40 at the high school to $50 at both.
The future of our district programs and the districts future as a whole are being put in jeopardy. Chester CUSD #139 will continue to make the decisions that we feel will provide the best education for our students. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Superintendent Chris Diddlebock if you have any questions or concerns.