Sangamon Sun

Ball-Chatham Community Unified School District 5 Finance Committee met Jan. 16.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

Finance Committee Board members present were Pat Phipps, and Ryan Murphy; Superintendent Becca Lamon; and CSBO Charlotte Montgomery.

Ms. Montgomery reported the District received ‘Notification of Filing of Application for Property Tax Exemption’. The property is located at 135 Independence, Chatham down from Arby’s. Goodwill Industries has moved from the old location to this new property. The parcel had been farm ground and does not represent a monetarily impact to the District.

Ms. Montgomery reported that a $5 mil Certificate of Deposit matured on January 11th and resulted in $139,890.41 in earned interest, bringing the total interest received to date to $591,750. Investments with the Illinois School District Liquid Asset Fund (ISDLAF) will not be ‘booked’ until year-end. Through December, as noted on the Treasurer’s Report, earned interest for those funds is $257,852.27. Budgeted earned interest is $803,000, down from last year’s interest received of $934,292.17. Budgeted downward due to the uncertainty of the marketplace. Future maturities are two in March and two in June. Cash flow analysis continues to maximize funds invested.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was discussed. The Illinois Department of Revenue sets the rate for Illinois school districts during the month of January. As of today’s date, that CPI correspondence has not been received.

It is anticipated the rate will fall between 3.1 – 3.4 percent, compared to the full 5% maximum the District claimed on the last levy.

Ms. Montgomery informed the Finance Committee that the budget will be amended to address additional grants funds received; and additional costs associated with ‘Out of District’ Placements in conjunction with the rate increases granted by the Illinois State Board of Education for those placement facilities. Those increases are back-dated to the beginning of the school year; and inflationary increases to name a few. The tentative amended budget will be presented in May and adopted in June. At the same time, the tentative FY25 budget will be developed and uploaded in August so principals and department heads will know their final budget. The FY15 tentative will be presented in August with adoption in September.

The State Board of Education Financial Profile Score was discussed. The District had finally reached the perfect 4.0 on debt; however, another indicator fell resulting in a profile score of 3.65. The indicator that fell was due to expenditures being greater than revenues received in operating funds. Ms. Montgomery stated that it may be possible to transfer from the Working Cash fund prior to year-end to negate that impact. The importance of the profile score in relation to interest rates was discussed. With the potential for a referendum in the future, the profile score acts as a credit score and will allow for a lower interest rate on those bonds associated with the referendum.

https://go.boarddocs.com/il/cusd5/Board.nsf/Public