School district budget narrows gap, but $5 million deficit still looms

DECATUR - The Decatur School District's budget faces a $5 million deficit in the education fund by the end of the fiscal year.

At the school board meeting Tuesday, Todd Covault, director of business affairs, gave the board a rundown on the midyear condition of finances. At the beginning of the budget year, he said, he had predicted a $9.2 million deficit, but at midyear things are a bit better.

Some of the shortfall is due to a decrease in general state aid, he said. The state is only paying 95 percent of the funds promised to schools. Transportation costs are being reimbursed at 74 percent, and special education facilities at a little more than 87 percent.

Worse, the state is threatening to require the district to pay for the Teachers Retirement System, which could put an unsupportable burden on already tight budgets.

"I'm scared of how much that would cost that we don't have and couldn't have unless we went to the taxpayers and said help us fund this," board member Brian Hodges said.

Board President Dan Winter, a retired teacher, said his pension depends on the health of TRS, and he also worries about his son, who is a teacher now. If the fund collapsed, his son would have no retirement fund.

Board member Dan Oakes asked Covault how Decatur's financial situation compares to other Illinois districts of similar size.

"We are all hurting together," Covault said.

Better news came from Aissa Norris, principal of Pershing Early Learning Center. A grant awarded to only six districts in Illinois will allow Decatur schools to serve more at-risk students.

The Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting program has been able to serve about 423 children when about 4,000 families in Macon County are qualified for the visits, Norris said. With the federal grant, the program can hire two more parent educators for the district, six more to serve families in the county and to serve children up to age 5. Agencies include Baby TALK's Early Head Start, Bright Start, the Macon County Health Department's Healthy Families and Macon Resources Inc.

Home visits allow early intervention if developmental delays are present, increases school readiness and decreases child abuse and neglect, she said.

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