By Howard Packowitz
NORMAL – Unit 5 administrators presented to the school board Wednesday night a tentative budget for the next fiscal year that has a nearly $5.9 million structural deficit in the education fund.
The budget is in the red because the district is paying a lot more for salaries and benefits to attract quality teachers, according to Superintendent Mark Daniel.
“We need to be competitive. We need to bring the best teachers to Bloomington-Normal, retain those teachers, and we had to do something in regards to their salaries,” said Daniel.
The school board in May adopted a two-year contract with the teachers union, raising starting pay $3,000 to $37,600 by the second year of the deal. A bill awaiting Gov. Bruce Rauner’s signature would raise starting pay to $40,000 statewide.
The district plans on borrowing money to balance the budget the next two years, and come up with longer term solutions later to deal with deficits. At a public hearing Wednesday night, no one spoke for or against issuing $16.5 million in bonds that would raise property taxes $205 in each of the next two years for the owner of a $177,000 home.
Unit 5 is not counting on an expanding property tax base. The district projects only one-half percent increase in taxable land values because of stagnant economic growth.
Unit 5’s preliminary enrollment figures for the first day of school show a modest decline from the end of the last school year, as State Farm job reductions may have had an impact, according to James Harden, Unit 5’s Executive Director of Human Resources and Student Services. Enrollment is at 13,055 students, down from 13,189, or about five or six kids in each school.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
