Discrepancy Means Reduced Funding Increase for Yorkville Schools

Yorkville, IL — Last week, state lawmakers passed a stopgap budget to fund schools for the 2016-17 school year. The measure insured that Illinois school districts would receive at least the same amount of funding for fiscal year 2017 that it received in fiscal year 2016, according to a news release from Yorkville School District 115.

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The state funding bill (SB2047) continues to be based on a formula that relies on a district's local resources, average daily attendance of students and student poverty level to calculate the amount individual school districts will receive in General State Aid. State lawmakers also approved an "equity grant" to further support K-12 education.

This week it was reported that Yorkville CUSD 115 was in line to receive approximately $4.6M in additional funding for the 2016-17 school year, which included an $83,000 equity grant. However, an analysis by district personnel identified a discrepancy between the state's and district's figures that were used in the calculation. Correcting this discrepancy will result in the district receiving a significantly lower amount of state funding than what was previously reported.

Although lower, the amount still represents a notable increase from fiscal year 2016. The revised calculations indicate that the district is expected to receive as much as $1.75M in new revenue, which includes the $83,000 equity grant.

Once the figures are finalized by the state, the updated numbers will be used in the district's budgeting process. The Yorkville CUSD 115 tentative 2016-17 budget is expected to be presented to the Board of Education in August with final approval slated for September.