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July 2, 2021

D158 student registration fees may see a 50% one-time reduction due to the district's budget surplus cause by COVID-19
D158
D158 student registration fees may see a 50% one-time reduction due to the district’s budget surplus cause by COVID-19

Features, News • July 2, 2021

D158 Board of Education discuss distributing surplus funds in the 2021 fiscal year

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MCHENRY COUNTY – At the June 17 Board of Education (BOE) meeting, D158 Superintendent Scott Rowe, mentioned wanting to bring conversation back regarding next steps for distributing the surplus of funds the district has, given that the 2021 fiscal year is close to wrapping up.

“To refresh your memories, the conversation centered around registration fees. Specifically on registration fees, should we reimburse families for a portion or all of the registration fees from this current year…Should we consider an abatement on the property taxes for the coming year and just what options exist to do something special given the challenging year we had since we had favorability unlike really any year we’ve seen,” Rowe told the board members.

Mark Altmayer, chief financial officer for D158, stepped in to give the BOE a forecasted financial year statement for 2021.

“We have a fairly good idea of where we’re going to be and at the end of the day, with operating revenues forecasted at $110.6 million and operating expenses forecasted at $108.2 million, we expect to finish the year approximately $2.35 million in a surplus position,” Altmayer said.

He explained that a majority of the favorability driving the surplus had to do with a cut of approximately $1.5 million in salaries and $335,000 in benefits due to the furlough of employees during the pandemic.

BOE President Tony Quagliano, presented an approach in which the overage of funds could be split into separate $700,000 amounts or about one-third of the district’s anticipated operating surplus, to be distributed amongst three groups.

The first group to receive assistance from the surplus funds, would be families of children in D158, by means of reducing registration fees by 50%.

Quagliano then suggested giving funds to D158 staff members to show the district’s appreciation in their efforts to deliver education following the extraordinary circumstances the pandemic posed. Though due to issues with the collective bargaining agreement, further discussions would need to take place in how to present the funds to district staff.

Lastly, Quagliano proposed an approximate property tax abatement of $750,000, which he made clear wouldn’t be effective until the following year.

Altmayer explained that by using levy year data from 2020, he estimates that individuals would save about $44 on their property taxes if the BOE decides to abate $750,000.

BOE member Lesli Melendy, asked how the district planned on handling the 50% registration fee discount to families who have delinquent registration fee payments.

D158 incurs about $100,000 each year in uncollected registration fees, according to Altmayer, who states that figure doesn’t include families who qualify for free and reduced lunch since they apply for a fee waiver or reduction.

Altmayer explained that D158 had no explanation of why some families choose not to pay the registration fee despite the district offering the option to set up payment plans.

BOE Vice President Kevin Gentry, shared he felt that it is unfair to offer the registration fee discount to families that are delinquent on their payments, however, the biggest hurdle he had was ensuring individuals are made aware that this distribution of surplus funds was a one-time event due only because of COVID-19.

Altmayer told the BOE that the district has better odds of receiving payments for delinquent registration fees if they offer the 50% fee discount for every D158 family regardless if they paid fees or not. He also assured board members that the $50 early payment discount would remain intact regardless of what other discounts the BOE decides to implement.

Quagliano agreed with Gentry on his sentiment regarding the fairness of offering the discounts to families who haven’t paid their fees, but said “the generosity of cutting fees might help individuals catch up on payments.”

Altmayer cautioned that D158 is still awaiting bills for approximately $1.7 million in open purchase orders, though he does still anticipate that surplus figure to be somewhere within the $2 million range.

BOE members agreed with Gentry in that the district would need to focus on the wording they will present to the public regarding this one-time distribution of funds. Quagliano said the district will not be distributing funds every time D158 has a surplus.

While the district waits for final confirmation on the exact surplus amount, it appeared that every BOE member seemed to be in agreement with Quagliano’s proposal on the distribution of the surplus to the three different groups he suggested.

Quagliano ended the conversation by stating once the final amount is known, the BOE would need to work on the bargaining issues with educators to form a clear path as far as how they would agree on the plan.