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the New Lenox Patriot | September 28, 2017 | 3
New Lenox School District 122
Officials adopt fiscal year 2017-2018 budget
Megann Horstead
Freelance Reporter
The New Lenox School
District 122 Board of Education
adopted its fiscal
year 2017-2018 budget at its
Sept. 20 meeting.
The tentative budget recently
approved by officials
had been on display at the
district’s office since Aug.
17. It includes nine different
funds in which money is accounted
for.
Business Manager Robert
Groos said D122 has “a lot
of good news” to share financially,
especially as a school
district in the State of Illinois.
Staff typically examines
the district’s funds for operations
and maintenance,
education, transportation, Illinois
Municipal Retirement
Fund and working cash to
determine how much is accounted
for in the fund balance
reserves.
Consequently, D122 started
the current school year
with roughly $29.9 million,
which is more than 58 percent
of its operating expenditures.
The minimum fund
balance reserves recommended
by the State of Illinois
is 25 percent.
Groos said they are well
over the minimum, and the
public will see that reflected
well in the fiscal year 2016-
2017 audit.
D122 presented a budget
for the year showing a deficit
of $116,739 in the debt
service fund. Typically, the
district sees a break-even
fund in terms of the money
that comes in through property
taxes to pay off bonds.
Groos tried to lessen the
concern people raise for the
budget.
“With some of our capital
leases that we have in place
now for the technology plan
that we rolled out over the
past couple years—with all
our new iPads and our 2-to-
1 and 1-to-1 goals that we’re
trying to reach—we have
been leasing a lot of technology,
and based on our most
recent audit, there’s a specific
way to account for that,”
Groos said. “I just want to
bring this example because
you see it in the education
fund and the debt service
fund, in terms of this [monetary]
transfers in.”
Groos said it is important
to couple the slight deficit
and transfers in to determine
if D122 is actually incurring
a surplus or deficit.
“I would say even though
revenue versus expenditure
shows a slight deficit, we
have that transfers in, and we
see the fund balance actually
increase,” Groos said.
The debt service fund,
for example, features a
$116,739 deficit that transfers
in $583,253 to account
for lease payments. That
makes for a surplus.
The same effect holds true
for D122’s education fund,
which shows a $1.8 million
surplus, a transfers in
of $466,318 and a transfers
out of $583,253. That money
coming out goes toward the
debt service fund to pay for
lease payments, as well.
Groos said it may be a
little difficult for people to
examine the district’s current
and past budgets for
comparison purposes, but
the new technology leases
require use of the new accounting
procedure.
Another transfer of note
involves roughly $3 million
out of the capital projects
fund and $880,763 that transfers
out. That money flows
out to pay for summertime
improvements across the district.
D122 has a history of
keeping its expenditures lower
than its revenues each year
to create a surplus that can
account for various projects.
This past summer, the
district completed improvements
to parking lots,
replaced roofing at two
schools, painted several
buildings and worked on
other renovations.
The repairs and maintenance
to buildings are usually
paid for using funds in
D122’s operations and maintenance
fund, which is a rare
occurrence for a school district,
Groos said.
“Usually, school districts
have to go out to the taxpayers,
sell more bonds, get
more debt, so they can do
these special projects,” he
said. “We’re trying to do that
with our own existing money
within our existing budget.”
Since the board took action
Aug. 16 to approve the
district’s tentative budget,
additional revenue dollars
were added.
Gross explained that with
the recent passing of the
new school funding formula,
Please see D122, 7
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