WB_062719

10 | June 27, 2019 | The wilmette beacon NEWS
wilmettebeacon.com
Wilmette Library Board
Posted to WilmetteBeaconDaily.com 8 days ago
Approved 2019-2020 budget includes increase in personnel costs
Fouad Egbaria
Freelance Reporter
The Wilmette Library
Board approved a fiscal
year 2019-2020 budget
featuring a total 5 percent
increase in personnel
costs. The board approved
the budget by a 5-1
vote at its June 18 regular
meeting, after the Finance
Committee reviewed the
budget a second time June
11. Trustee Dan Johnson
provided the lone dissenting
vote, while Trustee
Joan Fishman was absent.
Overall, the working
budget for fiscal year
2019-2020, which begins
July 1, including a 3.3 percent
increase compared
with the current fiscal year
budget. Budgeted General
Fund expenses come in
at $5.79 million, up from
$5.61 million for the current
fiscal year.
The board will approve
the accompanying appropriations
ordinance at a
future meeting.
Library Director Anthony
Auston said the board
has historically approved
the budget and appropriations
ordinance at the same
time, but that it would approve
them separately this
year in order to create a
“distinction” between the
two documents.
The approved budget
features a 3 percent
cost-of-living increase
for library personnel. The
budget also reflects an
additional 2 percent personnel
expenses increase
stemming from a benchmarking
study conducted
by the library last year that
led to amendments to its
salary schedule.
“There are still a few positions
that remain to have
adjustments made to the
base salary and to those
ranges,” Auston said.
“That’s what the balance
of that fund is for, is to accomplish
that project.”
Prior to approval of the
budget, trustees discussed
expected expenditures as
a percentage of the budget.
Through the end of March,
71.1% of the current fiscal
year budget has been expended,
a table included in
the board packet notes.
Johnson said the library
has been coming in under
budget in previous years.
“We’ve been coming in
under budget and so then
we’ve had a surplus,”
Johnson said. “This year,
I’m trying to get a sense as
to how close we come to
budget — if it’s 95 percent,
96 [percent], whatever it’s
going to be — because if
we’ve been coming in under
budget, I don’t want
to have a surplus to dump
into the Special Reserve
Fund again.”
Johnson asked whether
or not the library expects
to approach 100 percent
of the current year’s budgeted
expenditures.
“We budget for 100
percent of our expenses,”
Auston said. “We’re trending
very close to being 100
percent of our budget this
year.”
Some personnel uncertainty
— namely with respect
to the library’s search
for a new director this
year after the departure of
former Director Heather
McCammond-Watts —
has impacted the budget.
Board Treasurer Ron Rodgers
said some personnel
decisions are put on hold
until a new director comes
in and makes his or her
own staffing decisions.
“We had the unfortunate
experience of hiring
a new director who didn’t
stay long,” Rodgers added.
“That repeated the process
and some of the personnel
decisions were extended
even further, so you budget
on the basis of what
you think is going to be …
we’re budgeting now for
next year.
“When we were in this
position two years ago, we
were also starting a new
search because our director
had just left, our new
director had just left. She
only stayed a year. That
tends to cause you to be
under budget on personnel
because of positions you
don’t move forward on because
you want the person
who’s running the library
for you to have control of.”
As for this year’s budget,
Board President Lisa
McDonald said it appears
to be “right on.”
“I’m looking at this
year’s budget and we’ll
probably come in 4 percent
under what is budgeted,
which I think is fair
and prudent,” McDonald
said.
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Posted to WilmetteBeaconDaily.com 1 day ago
10th annual field day unites
North Shore, Chicago students
Alexa Burnell
Freelance Reporter
At the end of each
school year, many students
around town enjoy field
day, an event where math
and science to take a backseat
to outdoor games and
fun.
While the ritual is a
given for local students,
the same is not always
true for kids living outside
of the confines of the
North Shore. So on June
12, youth leaders from
North Shore Country Day
School and New Trier
High School gave students
from the LEARN Excel
Charter School in East
Students played a variety of games for the 10th annual
field day June 12 in Northfield. Meredith McCabe
Garfield Park the same opportunity
during the 10th
annual LEARN Field Day
at Fox Meadow Fields in
Northfield.
The LEARN Charter
School Network functions
by creating a network of
high-performing K-8, tuition
free, public charter
schools with an overarching
goal for all LEARN
students to go to college.
The relationship with
LEARN Excel on the
North Shore began when a
Please see Field, 14