Elmhurst D-205 Staff Growth Outpaces Enrollment

Elmhurst IL

14 July, 2021

12:58 PM

Description

ELMHURST, IL — Elmhurst School District 205 is considering a budget for next school year with a staff that is 3 percent larger than it was four years earlier. During the same time, enrollment has grown less than 1 percent, according to state numbers. On Tuesday, the school board got a first look at the 2021-22 budget, which calls for 1,169 full-time equivalent, or FTE, positions, for a total of 1,169. That's up by 29 from the 2018-19 school year. "We need to be careful. The last five years, we have been adding FTEs at way too high of a percentage compared to enrollment," member Karen Stuefen said. Stuefen noted the budget dictates how much the district seeks from property taxpayers. She said the district could consider giving back a portion of its fund balance to the community, saying that would make officials more fiscally responsible. The total salary costs are expected to rise to $83.3 million this fiscal year, up from $73.4 million in 2018-19, or a 10 percent increase. If the costs had gone up with inflation, salary expenditures would have risen to $80.5 million, not counting the inflation through the rest of this fiscal year, according to the federal government's inflation calculator. In the 2018-19 school year, the average employee received $64,739, a number that would increase to $71,297 under this year's budget. That's not as big of an increase when inflation is taken into account. With inflation, an average worker would now receive $70,962. During the budget discussion, member Athena Arvanitis said it would be helpful if the board received budget projections for the next two or three years. That would give the board a greater understanding of the community's demographics as well as who is moving in and who is moving out, she said.