VVSD Board to Vote on $274M Budget Monday

Valley View School District 365U school board members will vote Monday on a nearly $274 million budget.

The document is available by stopping in at the VVSD Administration Center at 755 Dalhart Avenue, Romeoville or by going to www.vvsd.org.

The budget represents an increase of $5.1 million or 6.6 percent over last year, according to the Bugle. 

Big changes include: 

• Cost associated with build-out and renovations for all-day kindergarten 
• Additional 21 teachers for all-day kindergarten 
• Increase of $2.7 million in scheduled debt service payment 
• Anticipated increase in salary per labor agreements 

The district has $241,582,767 in operating funds, or an increase of $5.1 million from FY12, according to district documents. The budget includes projected revenues of $202,266,178 and expenses of $230,234,167. 

VVSD officials said last month the district's budget will be balanced by FY15. The district is utilizing its fund balance in the midst of a $13 million deficit from FY13. The district projects that deficit will shrink to $5 million in FY14. 

"We're headed in the right direction financially," said Gary Grizaffi, assistant superintendent for administrative services. "The revenue side of the equation continues to get hammered every time you turn around." 

Valley View has received $36.5 million from the state instead of the $64 million it should have received, Grizaffi said. 

"We've born the brunt of a decrease (in state aid)," Grizaffi said. "That's money that can't be made up anywhere, anyplace." 

The district will face great financial difficulty if the state moves forward in shifting the cost of teacher pensions to local school districts over 12 years, Grizaffi said. The Illinois General Assembly will meet Aug. 17 to discuss the issue.  

The FY13 budget will continue to be fine-tuned before the board's vote and will change daily, Grizaffi said. "We try to incorporate everything we know to date to give us the best guess of where we're headed and we're not going down a path we're not going to afford."