The Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education unanimously passed the district’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year with a $13 million deficit at its meeting Monday night.
The board also heard about the district’s deficit reduction plan to combat this increase, presented by District 65 administrators. The plan aims to make the district’s operations and investments more efficient.
The district’s revenue totals $185.1 million, a 0.55% decrease from FY24, which ended on June 30. FY25 started on July 1, 2025. Salaries make up 59% of the district’s expenditures and purchased services, such as transportation, make up 16%.
District 65, which had a budget deficit of about $10 million for both FY23 and FY24, hired Robert Grossi, an independent financial adviser, to evaluate the district’s finances earlier this year.
During Monday’s meeting, Grossi said the total education funding for FY25, $177.6 million, will be less than it was for FY24, partially due to the removal of one-time federal COVID-19 relief grants and because corporate personal property taxes for the district are estimated to decrease by about 34%, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
The district’s expenditures are increasing by 1.13% from FY24 to $213 million total. Health premiums have risen, so employee benefit expenses are contributing to the increase, Grossi said.
He added that the district’s budget deficit is supposed to increase to $13 million from the previous $10 million deficit, outpacing cost increases.
Grossi added that at the end of FY24, the district had 98 days of reserve funding left, but in FY25, the remaining budget is only projected to cover 72 days. This decrease will put District 65 below its minimum target of 90 days of reserves.
“I cannot stress enough the magnitude of the financial challenges facing this district,” Grossi said. “The status quo will lead the district to either financial or academic bankruptcy … With already depleting operative fund balances, the district has put itself in a position as early as the next budget year, where a delay in tax revenues from Cook County could require short-term borrowing just to cover payroll and other expenses.”
To combat this increasing debt, Superintendent Angel Turner introduced a deficit reduction plan, to be implemented this year.
The plan includes reducing non-classroom staff positions and reducing classroom staff positions, Turner said. She added that the district will also look at modifying out-of-school programming to determine their effectiveness and return on investment.
The deficit reduction plan also evaluates how to deliver individualized educational services in a high quality and cost-effective way, Turner said.
The other parts of the plan include matching the district’s number of facilities to what is needed for the number of students, identifying sources of additional funding and having more cost-effective transportation services.
“These are the five key components that are really going to have to be lifted up and evaluated extensively in order for us to really close this deficit,” Turner said.
These evaluations will be ongoing and their findings will be presented to the board in January 2025.
Currently, the Illinois State Board of Education requires districts to create a deficit reduction plan when their revenues are less than their expenditures by an amount greater than or equal to one-third of the district’s ending fund balance. While D65 does not yet meet this requirement, District 65 Chief Financial Officer Tamara Mitchell said this plan was a proactive step.
District 65 Board Vice President Mya Wilkins emphasized that the data and deficit reduction plan show the urgency with which the board needs to act.
Board member Biz Lindsay-Ryan echoed this sentiment but also said it is important to consider the costs of the cuts the district will make.
“We have some things that are state mandated,” she said. “We have some things that if we don’t fund appropriately, it will lead to other costs, both financial and in the quality of education for our students.”
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