Planfield man arrested for child pornography. See page 9. SPORTS
SCHOOLS
Alviti tabbed top player
District 202 students win JJC art award
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T HE ENTERPRISE District 202 Your Complete Source For Plainfield News Since 1887
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Volume 125 No.17
www.enterprisepublications.com
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Serving Will and Kendall counties
28 pages
Trims 2013 budget Updated budget cuts deficit by $7.1 million for 2012-13 budget Sherri Dauskurdas Staff Reporter
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INSIDE
few months have made all the difference in District 202, where administrators and board members have managed to cut an early projected school year deficit from $8.9 million to $1.8 million. New revenues, coupled with a host of nonpersonnel cuts and operational savings, have contributed to the difference. The board in September adopted the 2012-13 budget with a projected $8.9 million operating deficit, knowing there would be changes. The State of Illinois requires school districts to set a budget in September, even if it is preliminary. “A lot of these changes are simply because of timing--when we get money, when bills were actually paid, etc. ,” said district spokesman, Tom Hernandez, ”which is why we were so emphatic in September that the original budget showing an $8.9 million deficit would change once we had a chance to shore up the numbers.” In all, district staff was able to save about $5.2 million through operational savings and efficiencies and non-personnel cuts. The single biggest reduction – $3 million – came
by eliminating about 200 vacant teaching, administrative and support positions, said Angela Smith, Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations . These were not new cuts, but rather positions that had not been filled for some time and never officially removed from the district’s budget planning. “Their salaries were rolling up into the budget,” Smith said. “We are now confident that the new number of employee positions reflects what we actually need.” Building-level budgets were cut by 15 percent to 20 percent, saving the district $674,000. Hernandez said most cuts to the individual buildings’ budgets were for things like supplies. Likewise, curriculum adoptions were delayed one year to save $500,000 in the Curriculum and Instruction department budget. The Transportation budget also saw reductions of $676,000 because fewer bus routes were needed than anticipated. “At the last minute, we were able to reduce the number of buses because of enrollment, with more triple scheduling, and a few new local
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