The Regional Office of Education told the committee on Aug. 21 that it had trimmed its 2026 budget by eliminating one position and asked the county to honor a prior resolution to cover $130,000 of the Geneva lease, while the office covers the remainder.

Nut graf: Regional Superintendent Jonette (representing the Regional Office of Education) said the office is already third‑lowest among county departments in budget size, that the office reduced its submitted 2026 budget to about $400,572 by removing one position, and requested that the county continue to fund the portion of the Geneva lease the board agreed to previously.

Key points: Jonette said the county had covered nearly $50,000 above the agreed $130,000 lease contribution for the last two years and proposed returning to the originally written resolution where the county covers $130,000 and the ROE covers the remainder. The ROE explained that Geneva is centrally located within Kane County; moving to Aurora or Elgin would increase travel and mileage reimbursements for teachers, bus drivers and licensure clients and would reduce access to the office’s programming, including services tied to the juvenile justice center (JJC). Jonette said the ROE coordinates JJC educational programming and cited a daily billing rate (~$350 per day per youth) for the facility as part of why the ROE’s central location matters for regional services.

Services and staffing: The ROE said it provides fingerprint processing, bus driver training (over 1,200 drivers trained in the past year), truancy visits (about 2,500 last year), and licensure services. Jonette said five of nine district superintendents are in their first or second years and benefit from the office’s networking and supports.

Ending: Jonette asked the committee to respect the prior lease resolution, accept the one‑position reduction in the ROE’s 2026 budget and to consider that central location supports county‑wide educational and JJC programming. The committee took no final vote on the lease; committee staff advised that a resolution must be introduced in new business before formal committee action.