Sycamore board adopts 3.5% financial parameter after five-year forecast showing cash risk by 2030

The Sycamore Board of Education on a unanimous vote adopted a resolution that caps average total-expenditure growth at 3.5% from 2026 through 2030 and approved a five-year financial forecast staff said shows risk to the district’s cash reserves.

Board members heard a slideshow summary of the forecast that staff said pulls from the full five-year document available on BoardDocs. The presenter said Sycamore is “a locally funded public school district with 85% of our funds coming from our local community” and highlighted that state funding comprises about 15% of revenues.

Why it matters: staff told the board the forecast assumes an 11% county property-value update by 2030 that would yield roughly $3 million total from 2027 to 2030, and a recently phased-in school-funding model that adds about $2 million in 2026–27. At the same time, staff said the forecast assumes an enrollment-growth supplement of roughly $1.4 million that the district can only count on through 2027 unless state policy changes.

The forecast's assumptions also include personnel-cost projections: teacher-contract wage increases of 3% this year and 3.75% next year, assumed 3% planning increases for hourly employees when contracts expire, average step increases of about 2% and no net increase in full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions across the five years. Presenter remarks described personnel as the largest expenditure category, roughly 82% of operating costs.

Board members pressed staff on how enrollment growth and staffing interact. Staff and administrators said the district manages staffing through schedule changes and position reallocation rather than automatically adding FTEs; they noted a snapshot showing the district was about 14.4 FTE lower than the prior year at one point but cautioned that those numbers fluctuate daily.

On reserves, staff showed a cash-projection chart that, under the forecast assumptions, dips below the board’s policy goal of maintaining 25% of operating expenditures in cash in 2028 and projects cash exhaustion by 2030 if no new revenue or policy changes occur. “In 2030, we are predicting that we would run out of cash,” the presenter said.

Board action: After discussion, the board approved the five-year forecast and adopted the financial-parameters resolution that ties the district’s target to total expenditures (including transfers and advances). The resolution includes a provision allowing the board to adjust parameters if state statutory limits on maximum cash balances change.

Next steps: staff told the board an academic retreat and a separate financial retreat will continue the discussion and that calendar timing for a levy would require a first resolution months before a November ballot; staff recommended continued community engagement about potential levy timing and scope. The board also asked staff to make the forecast documents easy to find on the district website.

The board approved the forecast and parameters by roll-call votes recorded as unanimous. The resolution and forecast document are posted on BoardDocs.