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NSSO presents tentative budget; District 59 told tuition rates will rise modestly
Summary
NSSO superintendent Meg Schnore and CSBO Gavin McGint presented a tentative, zero‑balance budget forecasting modest tuition increases for member districts. District 59’s share is driven by a small enrollment bump and rate changes that for now total just under $300,000 in projected additional cost.
Meg Schnore, superintendent of the Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization (NSSO), told the District 59 board that NSSO’s tentative budget for the coming school year calls for modest tuition increases and planning to return any program surpluses to member districts.
"We have a no‑rejection policy for our members," Schnore said, describing NSSO’s role serving students whose needs first‑line districts cannot meet. She said NSSO sets rates through a multi‑step process starting with enrollment and purchase‑service projections, review by member business managers and a finance committee of CSBOs.
CSBO Gavin McGint walked trustees through program‑level projections. NSSO proposed tuition increases of about 3.8% for the Minor program and about 3.72% for Timber Ridge; the district’s deaf and hard‑of‑hearing program was increased by a similar percent, McGint said. For District 59, NSSO projected 24 students at Timber Ridge, 21 at Minor and three in the district’s DHH elementary program.
NSSO operates on a zero‑balance model: revenues and expenditures are projected to match, and any year‑end surplus is redistributed to member districts in proportion to usage. Schnore and McGint said the district’s expected additional cost for next year is driven primarily by the combination of a small enrollment increase and the tuition adjustments and is currently estimated at just under $300,000.
Board members asked practical questions about where the DHH classrooms are housed and how Medicaid or federal funding is factored into tuition. Schnore and McGint said Medicaid and IDEA funding are considered when NSSO builds tuition rates, but that those funding streams can be volatile and projections will be revisited through the summer as enrollment solidifies.
The presentation closed with a reminder that these figures are projections: final tuition rates will be confirmed after member districts review NSSO’s budgets in April and May and as actual enrollment is recorded in August.
