Thanks to Dr. Warren Shillingburg and others for recently sharing concerns and, more importantly, information, on this site about the District 181 finances and budget for FY 2010-11 currently under consideration.

I certainly am one of those citizens who does not chime in enough on these issues, though I have become somewhat familiar with some financial problems after the district embarked on a foolish (and ultimately failed) spending spree on expensive technology and the negotiations with the teachers last year (see links on the left).

This time I'm digging deeper into the numbers and plan to share some observations and ask some questions. But while getting up to speed on the latest budget I would like to share upfront some interesting facts that provide important context to these discussions.

First is an issue that was raised during the ill-fated and ill-conceived discussions about moving the middle school -- the projected population of school-aged kids in Hinsdale. It's been noted that our school population will begin to decline soon. Using some commercial sources of demographic information, I've found the following estimates of the 5 - 14 year old populations in Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills:

2009: 3,440
2014: 2,780

That's a 20% drop in five years. So, without wanting to suggest that we should take the pressure off of the need for fiscal discipline, these projections would suggest that pupil-driven expenses will soon begin to subside. One thing we should be looking out for is the release of the soon-to-be-unneeded funds back to the community when enrollment begins to decline.

Other interesting facts from the budget and financial statement, which are probably well known to many but new for some of us:

• We have $80 MM in debt outstanding, and roughly $6 MM, or over 10%, of our budget goes to service this debt annually.
• We have $1.7 MM of early retirement incentive liabilities on the books.
• Last year we got $500 k from the Feds (less than 1% of our budget), which makes one wonder what Federal mandates we are conforming to for the sake of 1% of our budget. However, next year we're planning on almost $1 MM in federal stimulus dollars. Are there strings attached to that money?
• From the budget, it looks like we plan to spend $900 k on the gifted program (salaries, benefits, and transportation).
• Comparable expenditures for Special Ed programs total about $6.9 MM. For FY 2008 this figure was $4.7 MM.

No opinion here yet as to whether the figures above are favorable or represent a problem. However, they do help to start sizing the various components of our spending.