Hinckley-Big Rock board holds public hearing on district budget; no public comments

The Hinckley-Big Rock Community Unit School District #429 Board of Education held a public hearing on Sept. 17 to receive comment on the district budget as presented and closed the hearing after receiving no public comment.

Superintendent Dr. Jessica Sonntag told the board that “the budget summary presented this evening is showing audited fund balances. The budget that was presented in August included unaudited fund balances.” Board members Jack Haines and Darrin Gengler praised Dr. Sonntag for her organization and transparency on budget matters.

Board member Jack Haines moved to close the public hearing at 6:21 p.m.; Abigail Barrett seconded. The motion passed on a 6-0 voice vote with Debi White absent. The recorded votes in the motion were Abigail Barrett: Yea, Tim Badal: Yea, Jack Haines: Yea, Myia Sittig: Yea, Darrin Gengler: Yea, Greg Pritchard: Yea; Debi White was absent.

The board noted that there were no written public comments and no oral comments during the hearing. The meeting notice also states the next regularly scheduled board meeting will be held Sept. 17, 2025, at 6:30 p.m. in the Hinckley-Big Rock High School Library.

Note on transcript consistency: the meeting announcement refers to the hearing as concerning the FY26 budget, while the motion text in the record references FY25. The record presented to the board on Sept. 17 was described in the meeting as showing audited fund balances; the transcript contains the inconsistent fiscal-year reference and does not include additional documents to resolve that discrepancy.