The Evanston/Skokie School District 65 Board of Education heard a financial evaluation at its Committee of the Whole meeting Monday. 

Principal auditor at Baker Tilly Nick Cavaliere conducted an audit on the district’s fiscal year 2024 finances and found that the district’s cash and investments’ value was overstated by over $575,000. The audit also found that the district underreported its creditable earnings to the Teachers Retirement System and had to pay $718,570 in liability.

The district’s chief financial officer, Tamara Mitchell, said the staff responsible for these parts of the district’s finances are going through additional training to ensure the same errors don’t occur again. 

The district’s financial adviser, Robert Grossi, also shared a year to date finances update with the board. 

In the month of February, the district received $25 million in revenues and paid $16.1 million in expenses. This brings total revenues for fiscal year 2025 to $114.7 million and expenses to $111.1 million.

The district is currently in a budget surplus of $3.5 million for the year to date. In February of last fiscal year, the district was in a budget deficit of $9.3 million.

The surplus comes after the board passed the district’s FY25 budget with a $13.2 million deficit at its September meeting. Since then, the district has been cutting costs through its Structural Deficit Reduction Plan. Phase 2 of the plan is culminating in $13.3 million of spending cuts. 

The district is tentatively on track to a nearly balanced budget by the end of the year, according to Grossi. However, he added that there are still four months left in the year before an official determination can be made. 

“You’re still vulnerable because your fund balances are low,” Grossi told the board. 

At the end of February, the district had $93.8 million in fund balances. It started the year with a fund balance of $116.2 million.

Also in September, Grossi estimated that the district’s reserve funds would cover 72 days of expenditures by the end of the year. Now, Grossi said it is likely that the district will have enough funds to cover more days, getting closer to its goal of having 90 days in reserve funds.

The board also heard an update on Phase 3 of its Student Assignment Planning, focused on dual language in the district’s middle schools. 

Amy Correa, the district’s multilingual program director, said the SAP III committee is working on picking the middle school — either Nichols or Chute — that will house a sixth-grade dual language program starting in the 2026-27 school year. She said the committee is evaluating each school using various data points to make a decision. That same year, Haven Middle School will begin its grades 6 to 8 dual language program.

The last of the three middle schools will implement a dual language program in the 2027-28 school year.

For board member Biz Lindsay-Ryan, the focus is meeting the needs of the district and having proper staffing and enrollment. She said the program is a “significant investment” that needs all three to be successful.

“My biggest fear is something we don’t control — that people say we want this, and then they don’t enroll,” Lindsay-Ryan said. 

Board President Sergio Hernandez said part of pitching the program to families is looking at the long term impact of it. Combined with Evanston Township High School District 202’s new dual language programming, students will have the opportunity to receive the Illinois State Seal of Biliteracy, he said. 

The board also approved a $104,681 increase to the contract for MG Mechanical Contracting, Inc. for construction of the Foster School. The expense comes out of the construction contingency fund, and the overall construction budget is still $48.5 million, said Kirby Callam, the district’s director of strategic project management.

Hernandez emphasized that the district is on the “right track” to financial stability.

“We have now taken hold of this issue that’s been going on for a while and are correcting the pathway and the processes moving forward around how the finances function in this district,” Hernandez said.  

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