Oak Park board adopts 2025-26 budget after district finance director outlines revenue uncertainty
Summary
The Oak Park Board of Education adopted the district's 2025-26 budget after Executive Director of Business and Finance Charice Foster presented revenue and fund-balance projections and warned that state proposals could change per-pupil funding midyear.
The Oak Park Board of Education on June 9 adopted the district's 2025-26 budget after a presentation from Charice Foster, the district's executive director of business and finance, that stressed the budget remains contingent on state action.
Foster told the board she and staff project approximately $59,141,063 in expenditures for 2025-26 and are aiming to start the year with an equivalent fund balance; she warned that pending state proposals make exact revenue uncertain. "We're projecting to start up the school year with approximately $59,141,063 in expenditures to match," Foster said.
The presentation laid out three statewide proposals for the foundation allowance that would raise the per-pupil base above the district's current $9,608: Foster said the governor's plan would add about $392 per pupil and the Senate proposal about $400 per pupil. "If they go with what the governor has proposed, we'll get about $392 more per student, which will increase our revenue by almost $1.2 million," she said, noting the district's enrollment estimate of roughly 3,000 students.
Foster emphasized the board should plan around the $9,608 baseline while noting some items already known to be removed from state proposals were excluded from her revenue lines. She characterized roughly 70 percent of the revenue assumptions as "for sure" and said other items remain fluid: "In any of these buckets as relates to local, state, or federal, they could increase or decrease, but some we know for sure." Board members pressed on the granularity of those changes and on whether offsets were included; Foster confirmed offsets were not included in the per-pupil increase figures.
The presentation included fund-level detail: the cafeteria (food-service) fund is projected to begin 2025-26 with about $187,009.18; student activity accounts around $150,000; sinking-fund balance projected near $190,000; and a district fund-balance line shown in the packet as $12,000,005.25. Foster also reported federal revenues projected at $6,017,004.18 and said last year's audited balance was about $14,000,006.49, a decline of roughly $2.1 million from that audit to the current projection.
Trustee Scott moved to adopt the 2025-26 budget and Trustee Clark seconded; the board recorded the motion as approved. The board also approved a 2024-25 final budget amendment that had been discussed at an earlier meeting. Meeting minutes show both items passed with no recorded opposition.
Why it matters: The district's operating plan depends on state funding decisions expected later in the year; Foster said final statewide numbers often are not settled until November, several months into the school year, meaning the board and administration will monitor midyear revenue changes and may need to adjust spending if state actions differ from current assumptions.
Board members thanked Foster and administration for preparing the documents while noting the continuing uncertainty around state proposals and step or longevity increases for staff that affect salary projections.
Foster's presentation and the board's approval close the formal public-hearing requirement for the budget and set the district's spending plan for the coming year, subject to later adjustments if state or federal revenue changes materialize.
