An already dire financial situation for Evanston/Skokie District 65 just got a lot worse.
In a Monday evening message to the community, Superintendent Angel Turner announced that the district closed out the 2024 fiscal year that ended July 1 with a $10 million budget deficit.
“The variance almost exclusively occurred within the transportation and special education budgets,” Turner wrote. “While the deficit is in line with the prior year, it exceeded the budgeted deficit adopted in September 2023 by approximately $8 million.”
In an analysis of prior budget presentations, however, the RoundTable has been unable to verify either of these claims. In September 2023, the school board approved a balanced budget with a $276,000 surplus, which former Business Manager Kathy Zalewski presented at a public meeting – there was no “budgeted deficit” for the 2024 fiscal year.
On top of that, according to the June buildings and grounds report presented to board members, actual expenditures on transportation from August through April were $7.73 million. Accounting for May and summer school, the total cost on transportation for fiscal year 2024 amounted to $9.3 million, as opposed to the amount budgeted in September 2023 of $10.3 million.
“Because of our cost-cutting measures, (renegotiating contracts, renegotiating insurance requirements, McKinney Vento routing adjustments, and moving Sped Routes back to buses) we are looking to come in $1.1M under my projections,” District 65 Transportation Services Coordinator Lou Gatta wrote in that June 2024 report.
Since public records show that transportation costs apparently came in around the amount budgeted for the 2023-2024 school year, it’s unclear what exactly caused this $10 million shortfall, though it’s the second consecutive year that District 65 has reported a significant and unforeseen deficit.
As for special education costs, Turner said Monday night they came in at $30 million, or 20% of the district’s overall operating budget. “We will continue to meet the needs of students and it’s clear that our new financial services leadership must develop a budget that better accounts for rising costs and continues to be equity centered, giving every child what they need for success in the classroom and in life,” she wrote.
According to Turner and other district officials, they decided to disclose this deficit now before presenting a tentative 2025 fiscal year budget at a board committee meeting next week.
“We must continue to take intentional and swift action to ensure a balanced budget going forward. Anything less is unacceptable,” Turner said. “FY25 will be the first budget developed under my leadership and at the direction of our new Chief Financial Officer, Tamara Mitchell, SFO, with support from Dr. Robert Grossi and the Illuminate financial advisory team.”
Turner began leading the district on July 1, 2023 as interim superintendent, so she was the highest-ranking administrator when the fiscal year 2024 budget was presented and adopted last year.
In Monday’s announcement, she also pointed to a budget reduction plan adopted by the board this spring, which is projected to permanently save $6.5 million a year. That plan reduced the total number of district staff by 40 positions, primarily through retirements and other departures. It also calls for several indefinite cost-cutting measures:
- Non-essential staff positions that remain vacant will not be filled
- A freeze on all non-essential purchased services
- An end to the CREATE 65 teacher residency program
Including the 2023 budget, the district’s expenses have exceeded its revenue by a total of more than $17 million over the last two years. Back in September, Zalewski presented numbers showing deficits for each of the next five fiscal years if the district doesn’t make significant reductions, ballooning from $4 million in 2025 to more than $18 million in 2029. Zalewski resigned in June after 23 years with District 65.
For more information, read the RoundTable’s analysis of the 2024 budget, Zalewski’s final budget presentation from September and the district’s 2024 budgeted expenses by category.
District 65 closes fiscal year 2024 with $10 million deficit is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.