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Bloomington District 87 Projects $5 Million Deficit

District 87 offices
Eric Stock
/
WGLT
Bloomington District 87 has projected a $5.3 million structural deficit for the 2021-2022 school year.

District 87 projects a structural deficit of about $5.3 million for the upcoming school year.

The District 87 school board reviewed a $74.6 million budget proposal at its meeting on Wednesday.

Superintendent Barry Reilly said the Bloomington school district projects taxable land values to drop slightly this year, while expenses continue to increase. Reilly said the projected shortfall is a concern, but he doesn’t believe a tax increase or staff reduction is necessary.

WGLT file photo
Barry Reilly

“We have no plans to do a deficit-reduction plan anytime in the near future,” Reilly declared. “Obviously if your expenditures are consistently more than your revenues, there will come a time when we have to do that, but we’re not close to that.”

Reilly said in a Sound Ideas interview about $1.5 million of the deficit includes COVID relief money that hasn't arrived yet. He said projections of past deficits never became reality because of the district's conservative budgeting. It's also partly because of short-term borrowing the district has done. Reilly said the district doesn't plan to make borrowing a habit and may need to consider a deficit-reduction plan if the budget numbers don’t improve in the next three to five years.

He is confident the situation will improve.

Reilly said expansions at the Ferrero candy plant, Westminster Village retirement community and other growth will likely expand the district's property tax base in the coming years.

“While this deficit this year is something that we don’t like, I am optimistic in the future we will see some better revenues coming in,” said Reilly, who previously announced he plans to retire after the next school year, in June 2022.

Reilly said he believes the district will likely need to dip into cash reserves this year.

Reilly said the district was able to reduce some costs during the pandemic in transportation and substitute teacher hiring, and buses were used less. He said that helped erase a projected $3 million shortfall last year.

The new budget calls for 26 new staff positions, including social workers, psychologists and other support staff to help students through the pandemic. Those positions are being paid for with federal funds for the next three years.

The school board is expected to vote on the budget plan in September.

Eric Stock is the News Director at WGLT. You can contact Eric at ejstoc1@ilstu.edu.
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