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Kaneland CUSD 302 auditors give clean opinion; board adopts tentative $63.04 million tax levy
Summary
Lauterbach & Amen reported a clean audit and recommended IT-security monitoring; the board approved a tentative 2025 operating levy of $63,040,000 (6-0). Officials said the district's fund balances remain healthy despite a roughly $3.3 million net decrease across funds.
Kaneland CUSD 302 received a clean independent audit and a management letter with several recommendations, and its board on Oct. 27 approved a tentative 2025 operating tax levy that would request $63,040,000 for next year’s budgets.
Allison Kemen of audit firm Lauterbach & Amen told the board the district received “their certificate of excellence in financial reporting for year 2024” and that the independent audit opinion was clean with no findings. She said the general fund balance was about $3.9 million — roughly 51% of the district’s total fund balance — and that district-wide funds showed a net decrease of about $3.3 million “due to expenditures exceeding revenues last year.”
District staff and auditors flagged IT security and emergent-risk monitoring in the management letter as an area for continued attention. Kemen said the firm now includes “IT security awareness and monitoring of emergent risk” as a standard recommendation across clients.
On the levy, district business staff explained the required public disclosures under the 2022 law cited in the presentation (public act 1020895) and walked the board through how the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTEL) and the consumer-price index affect the district’s limiting rate. The district reported education-fund cash of about $38.5 million and operations-and-maintenance cash of about $5.1 million as of September 2025; staff said those balances are higher at the start of the tax year because the district has received initial tax receipts.
Business staff projected about $2.9 million more in extension for 2025 compared with last year and said the district’s estimated equalized assessed value (EAV) growth for 2025 is roughly 15%, which increases total extension capacity even though the tax rate per $100 of EAV has been calculated at $5.23 for 2025 (down from $5.89 the prior year). The board moved and approved the total tentative operating levy on a roll-call vote, 6-0. Final adoption is scheduled for Dec. 15; if approved then, staff will file the levy with county clerks the following day.
No formal action was required on the audit presentation itself; the auditors and district staff encouraged board members and the public to review the Management’s Discussion & Analysis and the notes to the financial statements included in the packet.
What’s next: The district will advertise the tentative levy on Dec. 4 in the Kane County Chronicle (Elburn edition) and post levy materials and a tax calculator on the district business office web pages ahead of the Dec. 15 final hearing.
