Hall examines budget
By Neil Johnson
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news@bcrnews.com
SPRING VALLEY —The story of Hall High School’s budget swings both ways, depending on who you ask.
From the district auditor’s view, Hall’s financial outlook is rosy. But Superintendent Mike Struna insists there’s room in the district’s budget for improvement — and concern.
This week, Hall High School Board heard details of an audit for Hall’s 2009 budget year from Dan Steinberg of Peoria firm Leson Steinberg and Co., the district’s longtime auditor.
“Hall High School has finally turned the corner,” Steinberg said, noting 2009 was the first time “in the past two or three years” the district’s shown a revenue surplus.
Steinberg touched on various budget categories at Hall and went on to editorialize on Hall’s record of keeping district tax rates steady in past years.
“That’s important, the fact that you’re able to control the taxes your constituents are paying,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg acknowledged a few dark spots on Hall’s budget. He pointed to special education transportation, where he said revenues had been “cut almost in half,” from $89,000 in 2008 to $46,000 in 2009. That decrease, thanks largely to shortfalls in state aid payouts, led to a $24,000 deficit in the transportation fund, the audit showed.
“You’d like to complain that the state should do more,” Steinberg said, “But that doesn’t happen. The only powers you have are the ability to control your expenses and …”
Steinberg‘s comment was interrupted by the late arrival of board member Jack Boroski, who walked in with a bouquet of black balloons, apparently in commemoration of a baseball team’s playoff loss.
“If I hadn’t known Jack Boroski for 40 years ...” Steinberg said, laughing, before moving on to a different part of the audit.
Later in the meeting, Struna revisited the issue of deficit spending at Hall, floating a few philosophical black balloons of his own.
“In reality, if the board hadn’t borrowed money twice in the last two years, we would not be in the black right now,” Struna told the board. “I want us to remember, we’re living on borrowed money; we’re not bringing in more than we’re spending.”
Struna was referring, in part, to the $1.1 million in bonds Hall floated last year, and had used to help cover district costs. After the meeting, Struna reminded reporters the district’s solution for its transportation deficit was to draw on cash reserves.
“You can’t do that forever,” he said.
Struna also voiced concerns over a spending deficit in Hall’s lunch program. Between food costs and payroll, the lunch program, part of the district’s education fund, ended at a $39,000 deficit in 2009, the audit showed.
“You don’t want to make money (with school lunch) but … you don’t want to lose $39,000,” Struna told reporters.
Hall, like other districts, relies on state funding for school lunch. Otherwise, revenues come from lunch tickets.
Struna said with people feeling the pinch of a bad economy, the district held off on raising lunch fees this year, even though fee increases would have given the program a financial transfusion.
“We felt like we couldn’t. The times are tough,” Struna said.
Struna stressed to the board this week his concerns over the specter of continued shortfalls in state aid payouts for schools.
And during a discussion about Hall’s upcoming vision meeting Oct. 28, Struna briefly touched on the topic of school consolidation in Spring Valley, calling the idea “things to think about.”
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