In its first vote under new leadership, the Evanston/Skokie District 65 school board voted 7-0 to approve the district’s budget on Monday night. The unanimous vote came after members’ ability to work together as a board was questioned two weeks ago when former President Mary Rita Luecke resigned her position.
After calling the meeting to order, interim President Hecky Powell reaffirmed that the board will continue to cooperate to serve the district’s needs.
During his tenure Powell said he hopes the board will continue to work as one body and he wished to quell any rumors about a divided board.
“I’m looking forward to continuing board relations,” Powell said at the meeting. “We may fight, but hey, we’re a spirited board.”
Luecke resigned after the board voted to extend superintendent Hardy Ray Murphy’s contract an additional three years. The 4-3 vote came after board members raised objections over the resulting five year contract.
“We all agree in public and private that our superintendent, Dr. Murphy, is doing a good job,” Powell said.
Outgoing Chief Financial Officer Lutaf Dhanidina presented the district’s 2004-05 budget for approval.
“I’m very confident that you will have another year of a balanced budget when you get the reports in June of 2005,” Dhanidina said.
The board unanimously approved the budget, praising the district for making difficult decisions in the interest of fiscal responsibility.
Board member Bob Eder congratulated the district for being among the 20 percent of schools in the state with a balanced budget.
“We’re facing the same problems, the same economics,” Eder said. “The district can take great pride in (its financial) stewardship.”
The approved budget contains some revisions to the tentative budget that was made available to the public on Aug. 30 and presented to the board on Sept. 13.
In the tentative budget, the district had increased the price of early childhood childcare and cut four administrative positions and 14 teaching and social work positions. Additionally, instrumental music funding was reduced by $70,000, and the district eliminated its alternative school for students with discipline problems.
Dhanidina said updated teacher contracts, which were finalized earlier this month, will cost the district more than anticipated. But he also expects more revenue from the state and from property taxes, which could make up for these additional costs.
“We knew that the revenues were going to go up, we just didn’t know how much,” he said.
Dhanidina said budget revisions allowed the district to reduce the deficit in the Education Fund from $300,436 to $98,589 and increase the total surplus to $117,651.
After the district increased attendance costs for its early childhood program, enrollment dropped, resulting in a recalculation of the numbers.
“The board had directed us to make every effort to make these programs self-supporting,” Dhanidina said. “Unfortunately, even with these moves, we haven’t managed to make those programs self-supporting.”
Dhanidina said he expects enrollment to return to normal as people notice that the district’s childcare is superior to other programs.
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