District 46 Focuses on Cost Savings

Reducing activity fees for students was one idea considered by District 46 officials looked for ways to reduce the budget. A special Finance Committee meeting was held this week to brainstorm ideas for budget reductions. Officials said that 25 percent of the school district's population now falls into the free and reduced category.

“We can distribute the cost when there are a bunch of kids signed up for a program, but if we only have nine kids signed up for something and five of them are free or reduced we can’t cover our costs,” said Park Campus principal Craig Keer.

A range of ideas to help keep outside programs available and affordable for families were presented, including requiring a minimum amount of students to sign up or streamlining the number of activities offered.

“If we don’t have enough monies to cover an activity, can we just not have it take place?” said parent and committee member Shannon Smigielski. The activities program is currently operating with a $43,000 deficit.

Also on the table for discussion: renegotiating contracts with suppliers; changing vendors to reduce costs; hiring a grant writer to generate monies; hiring a purchasing agent for the district to make bulk purchases; selling products on the district website; hiring interns to save money for the educational fund. 

“Can we do more bulk purchasing as a district and even as individual schools?” said Frederick School principal Eric Detweiler.

“We are actually exploring ways districts can share equipment and costs. Lake Forest High School has been a model in the State of Illinois for this by sharing one superintendent for two districts,” said Superintendent Ellen Correll.  

E-readers, such as the Nook, were proposed to reduce the cost of textbooks. Each reader can hold five books and could be reused year-to-year.  The average cost of the tool is $139, while the cost of a single textbook can be up to $65.

Michael Carbone, who was recently censured by the board in the presence of the district’s attorney, was in attendance at the meeting as a member of the committee. When the district's legal fees were brought up, an awkward silence followed.

“Up until this point we have had very low legal fees, but they have skyrocketed recently due to some issues we are experiencing,” said Correll.  

The finance committee was created a year ago to address budget issues. Committee members represent various areas of the administration and community.

 “We did manage to find $6 million in savings this past year. The district is doing much better than most overall. It has been very helpful to have an integrated group to discuss the issues,” said Correll.