On Monday, the Indian Prairie School District 204 school board unanimously approved a balanced $455 million 2025-26 operating budget for this school year.
Up roughly $20 million from last year’s, the approved budget includes a $12.1 million transfer out of its operating fund to pay for technology upgrades, according to District 204 Chief School Business Official Matt Shipley. The district is also reducing its staff by 10.5 full-time-equivalent positions this year.
This is not the first time the district has cut positions in recent years. Last year, District 204 cut eight full-time-equivalent positions to account for the district no longer receiving federal pandemic-era relief funds through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER, Fund, according to past reporting.
The loss of that pandemic-era funding is also the reason for the reductions this year, according to a district budget presentation. Shipley said the district is expecting to reduce staff by 10 to 12 next fiscal year as well.
The district is also transferring $12.1 million from its operating fund into its local capital projects fund, according to Shipley, to pay for technology upgrades. This is a one-time transfer of money, he said, that’s expected to be used over the next three years.
Aside from the transfer, the operating budget for this year saw a surplus of about $211,000, per the numbers presented on Monday. Taking the $12.1 million transfer into account, the district’s operating fund balance is being reduced this year from about $168.5 million to roughly $156.6 million. That amounts to about 34% of the district’s revenue — which is in line with its priority of having a fund balance of around 25% of operating revenues, according to Shipley.
Shipley noted that this is particularly important amid uncertainty about federal and state funding.
“That’s also why it’s critical that, during this time, we carry sufficient fund balance as well,” he said on Monday, “so that if there (are) some delays or issues with either those state or federal revenues, it does not result in a loss of programming.”
The district is not aware at this point of any funding freezes or delays, according to Shipley.
These same concerns came up at the school board’s Aug. 4 meeting, when Shipley presented a tentative budget that he said remained largely unchanged in the version approved Monday.
At that earlier meeting, Shipley said the current uncertainty is different than in years past.
“There’s always been a concern about the ability or availability for state and federal to pay,” Shipley said in August. “I think this is the first time we’re in an environment where we’re really questioning the will or the political desire to fund K-12 education.”
As far as funding, property taxes account for a little more than 77% of the district’s almost $455.4 million in expected revenue, per the budget numbers presented Monday. State funding sources amounted to a little over 13% of the total projected revenue, while around 4% came from federal funding and a little over 5% came from other local sources.
Shipley also outlined this year’s expenses.
Salaries accounted for almost 65% of the district’s nearly $455.2 million in budgeted expenses, per the budget numbers, and employee benefits made up another 12%. About 15% of the district’s funding is set to go toward purchased services, which Shipley explained includes expenses like paying for custodians, lunchroom staff and transportation.
The district’s per-student spending has been increasing gradually over recent years, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education. In 2024, it spent an average of just over $16,000 per student. The district’s total enrollment sits at a little under 26,000, according to the most recent available numbers. But its per-student spending was lower than the state average for per-student operational spending in recent years, according to available state and district data.
Some of the significant increases the district is seeing, Shipley noted, are transportation, employee health insurance, electricity and out-of-district tuition costs.
In August, Shipley said the transportation increases were coming from wage increases and competition for drivers, as well as rising fuel costs.
He also noted that the increase in electricity costs were in large part coming from the schools in Aurora, which is serviced by ComEd. In June, ComEd users saw a spike in electricity supply charges, according to past reporting. Naperville, on the other hand, is not serviced by ComEd, and instead gets its power via a joint action agency, the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency.
That’s why Indian Prairie is currently focusing some LED lighting upgrades in district schools serviced by ComEd, Shipley has said, to improve energy efficiency.
Those upgrades are part of the district’s construction work being funded by the district selling $420 million in bonds, according to past reporting. The bond sale was approved by voters via a referendum in 2024.
Work on those projects is set to extend through 2032, according to past reporting. The construction work includes school-specific renovations at Waubonsie Valley High School, Neuqua Valley High School, Metea Valley High School, the Birkett Freshman Center and Gregory and Hill middle schools, as well as district-wide safety and security upgrades, the LED lighting installations and other infrastructure projects.
Per the district’s non-operating budget numbers presented on Monday, Indian Prairie is set to spend roughly $51 million of the referendum funds on capital projects this year. It has issued about $165 million via bond sales so far.
The bonds are to be paid for using a continuation of an existing 37-cent property tax per $100 of equalized assessed value that would otherwise have expired at the end of 2026, according to past reporting. That means the tax rate for residents in terms of their contribution to capital projects would effectively remain flat.
Following board approval of the budget, Shipley said the district’s business office is now set to complete its budget filings to the counties, Regional Office of Education and Illinois State Board of Education, which he said are due by Sept. 30. The district’s fiscal year extends from July 1 to June 30.
From there, Shipley said, the board is slated to approve a property tax levy in December.
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com