Orland School District 135 officials took a peek into the future and now have concerns about the potential elimination of transportation reimbursement from the state and how it would impact their students.
Some officials said after Monday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting that continuing to provide free bus service for the students will remain a priority but a worst-case scenario down the line could be asking families to pay for transportation, according to interim Superintendent Dennis Soustek.
“I hate to speculate what options the board would have on that but I think they are committed to providing service for the parents of our students,” Soustek said after the meeting. “Whenever possible, we will find a way to do that.’’
Assistant Superintendent for Business Service John Reiniche provided the board with a five-year projection on various financial matters and when it came to transportation, he said the district will be at a deficit of more than $600,000 this year and at least $1 million per year over the next five years.
He said the state is talking about “removing 100 percent of the funding’’ which would hurt the district even more.
“The state cut back 40 percent of the funding level already,” Reiniche said during the meeting. “They used to fund at 98 percent and now it’s less than 60 percent. I don’t think a lot of people understand what the state is doing to our funding level. The board has remained resilient in providing transportation to all of our students. I want the taxpayers of Orland Park and Orland Hills to know that the state is not living up to the obligation it has done for a long time.’’
Board Vice President Ann Gentile said the district’s fund balance, which this school year was budgeted in the $33.9 million range, could help offset some of those costs in the future.
“As a board member I want to be prepared, conservative and on top of what’s going on,” she said after the meeting. “These cuts have been progressing. And as a parent, of course I’m concerned. I hope we can provide transportation for all of our kids in the future. The great thing is that we have the funding because we’ve been conservative and living within our means. I could talk about that forever.”
During the meeting, board member Joe LaMargo, who has been critical of the board’s 60 percent fund balance-to-expenditure ratio in the past, urged the board to conduct an analysis and subsequent policy on what percentage would be fair to the taxpayers.
“Is it 40 percent? Sixty percent? Seventy-two percent?” LaMargo said. “At this point we don’t know but we need to find out so we can help justify it to our taxpayers.”
Reiniche said that late funding payments from the state and Cook County have made it important to have significant fund-balance money available to keep the district operating and to be able to pay its employees.
The board also expressed concern if a state law shifts pension responsibilities from the state to the local governments. While the board acknowledges this potential law would probably not happen until after the 2013 elections, board member Tom Cunningham predicts, “it is coming.”
Gentile said it could be “devastating” to the community and is urging the board to try to get the word out for members of the public to contact their state officials to try to prevent that action.
