Schools
Mokena 159 School Board Passes "Not An Ideal Budget"
Losing the business manager and the superintendent during budget talks put the district against the clock, several board members said.
The Mokena 159 School Board on Wednesday night passed an $18 million deficit budget not because they're happy with it, but because turnover at the highest levels pushed the district up against the state deadline.
"It's not an ideal budget and it's not an ideal situation," said Pat Markham, one of the two school board members on the finance committee that helped set the budget.
The tentative budget approved Wednesday plans for $18.6 million in expenditures and $17.5 million in revenues. This means there's nearly $1.1 million more going out than coming in.
Find out what's happening in Mokenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
While board President John Troy praised the finance committee for shaving $430,000 off expenses, he said the transition from the August resignation of Business Manager Barb Germany and put the district up against the clock.
"Right in that time frame when we were preparing the budget, we lost 30 days there. Maybe more," Troy said.
Find out what's happening in Mokenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The $430,000 in savings will go into contingency funds. By law, the money has to stay in certain areas and can't be used or for other purposes.
"You're not going to be able to borrow from one account for another account," said school board member and finance committee Chairman Scott Peters.
Board member Mike Ford said more time could have given the finance committee more chances to find savings.
"I just don't feel like we did our due diligence in terms of looking at every item," Ford said.
Chuck Lief, one of the citizen members of the finance committee (i.e., not an elected member of the school board), agreed.
"There was absolutely not enough time," Lief said.
Lief said many of his questions about why certain funds had been spent in certain ways couldn't be answered by new interim Superintendent Steve Stein and new Business Manager Kirt Hendrick.
"A lot of the stuff we were looking for, Barb Germany was in charge of, Karen Perry was in charge of and they're not on the board going forward," Lief said.
Mark Kowal, another citizen member of the finance committee, said he believes they could have found more savings without the transitional delays.
"We only went through a handful of things because of the time frame," Kowal said.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
