Sangamon Sun

Ball-Chatham Community Unified School District 5 Finance Committee met Feb. 13

Here is the agenda provided by the committee:

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

The Illinois Department of Revenue set the Consumer Price Index rate for Illinois school districts at 3.4 percent, compared to the full 5% maximum the District was able to claim on the last levy. We will not know what our final extension will be until (usually) the first week of April. At this time we do have the amount of the recapture portion of the levy extension $196,647 which is up from last year's $103,917.49. The County sets the recapture amount based on the Board of Review's decisions on reducing property taxes. Districts are able to 'recapture' the lost taxes on those decisions.

Ms. Montgomery discussed long-term obligations and the payment schedule by fiscal year. See the attached schedule. Should the District be successful in a bond referendum, careful attention should be paid to this schedule of repayments to minimize the impact on individual property taxes.

Subsequent to posting this agenda, it came to the administration's attention that the District is in desperate need to acquire buses. Our fleet is very old with some having miles in excess of 200,000. Mark Daley, the Director of Transportation, plans to seek bids on used buses with low mileage. New buses are now $140,000 compared to the $79,995 in 2019. The Transportation Fund Balance at the end of January was $4,456,462. It is Ms. Montgomery's recommendation to the Board to approve spending $2 million on buses this fiscal year. To include this expenditure in FY24 financials, along with the other driving factors impacting reserves in other funds, allows the District to have only one bad year impacting the ISBE Financial Profile Score. That leaves FY25 for the District to bring that indicator back up to the 4.0. This will enable the District to obtain a more favorable interest rate on future bonds. This will factor into the amended budget, which is on schedule to· present to the Board May 1st and adoption June 3.0th• Ms. Montgomery reminded the committee members of the January discussion on utilizing Working Cash to have a favorable impact on the Financial Profit Score. Given the situation with Transportation, her recommendation has changed.

In January, the Finance Committee approved moving $5,000 into the flex spending account to cover those employees who are spending their annual allotment before it is taken from their paychecks. Ms. Montgomery requests that the business office be allowed to transfer funds as the account warrants.

Settlements connected to arbitration ... Ms. Montgomery requested this topic be tabled until next month's meeting.

Another issue that occurred subsequent to the agenda was a formal bankruptcy notice for Endo International for Class 8 Public School Districts with the ability to vote on a settlement agreement. The District received two voting ballots with unique ID numbers, with the request to vote twice. If schools vote for the settlement, a $3 million dollar Public Education Fund would be formed over a three year period. The fund would provide grants and other funding for more than 100 participating schools to combat opioid abuse and remediation programs.

In closing Ms. Montgomery wanted the Finance Committee to be aware that the beginning balance for PMA investments in the Treasurer Report did not include the June 30, 2023 earned interest that was allowed to roll into the PMA ISDLAF investment account. The mid-year review caught the error.

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