By Patrick Baron

BLOOMINGTON – The tentative budget for Fiscal Year 2019 in District 87 is in the red.

At the board’s meeting Wednesday night, a presentation of the tentative budget highlighted a deficit of $2,517,724 in the education fund. During the presentation, District 87 Chief Financial and Facilities Officer Colin Manahan said the education fund is the largest in terms of expenditures. He added the deficit came about through an increase in expenditures and a decline in revenue.

“When we put together our budget and put all these numbers together, we have so much money coming in through revenue – and the revenue is in the decline – and our expenses aren’t going down necessarily, they’re going up,” said Manahan.

Manahan noted there are funds set aside in the event of a deficit such as this. He said some of the district’s working cash funds will be transferred into the education fund to take it out of the red.

“The way we offset these increases is through the use of money in our working cash fund, which is used specifically for this,” Manahan explained.

Manahan said there is enough money in the working cash funds to last another three to four years. He added the district is examining what the best course of action may be in the next two to three years to ensure there is still money in the working cash funds.

Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].