GIBSON CITY, Ill. (WCIA) — The Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley school board is set to hold a public hearing next month regarding their budget proposal for the current fiscal year, which forecasts a deficit close to $500,000.

The Ford County Chronicle, collaborating with WCIA, reported that the budget anticipates $18.87 million in expenses and $18.46 million in income, resulting in a projected shortfall of $413,200. The budget also forecasts that by the fiscal year’s end on June 30, 2026, the fund balance will exceed $11 million.

Of the school districts nine operating funds, deficits are projected in the following four:

• Maintenance fund (-$687,000)
• Debt service fund (-$51,000)
• Liability fund (-$46,000)
• Transportation fund (-$6,200)

The school board, in a unanimous decision on August 6, agreed to make the budget available for public review for 30 days, noted the Chronicle. A public hearing is scheduled for September 24 at 6 p.m. in the boardroom located at the unit office in Gibson City.

Superintendent Jeremy Darnell mentioned post-meeting on Wednesday that the operations and maintenance fund is expected to incur the largest deficit, with expenses of $2.97 million surpassing revenues of $2.28 million. This is primarily due to $3.1 million in planned enhancements to outdoor recreational facilities slated for next summer, which includes:

• The replacement of the high school’s track and the elementary school’s playground
• The construction of a new playground for preschoolers at the elementary school
• The re-purposing and expansion of the middle school’s reaction center to include:
  • A gaga ball pit
  • Two pickleball courts
  • A volleyball court
  • A concrete walking path

Of the $3.1 million allocated for this project, roughly $2 million is intended for the current fiscal year, as per Darnell. He further mentioned that a portion of these costs had been covered in the last fiscal year.

Darnell highlighted that the entire $2 million might not be expended within this fiscal year, as some expenses might extend into the following fiscal year, depending on the construction schedule.

“If it doesn’t get completed until July, it could actually be on next year’s budget, as well,” Darnell said. “It just kind of depends on the company and the spring rain. If it rains all of May and early June, it would be on next year’s [budget,] because they wouldn’t be able to get in and do the work and we’re not going to pay them until the work’s done. So, it’s literally dependent on the weather.”

He also said that the tort liability fund’s deficit, resembling the operations and maintenance fund’s deficit, is “intentional.” Despite expenses growing in that fund, auditors have still recommended the district reduce its balance of $842,333 as of the this fiscal year.

Additionally, if all goes according to plan, it would end this fiscal year with a total balance of $796,333.

“We’re letting that fund purposefully have a deficit,” Darnell said. “But that’s still going to allow us to maintain a [healthy] fund balance, barring any significant outputs in that fund, as well.”

On the other hand, the district’s other five funds project to run a surplus. This includes:

• Working cash fund (+$143,000)
• Fire prevention and safety fund (+$114,000)
• Educational fund (+$58,000)
• Capital projects fund ($40,200)
• Municipal retirement/Social Security fund (+$21,800)

The education fund specifically makes up the majority of the district’s revenues and expenses, with projected totals of $12.84 million in revenues and $12.78 million for expenses.

Aside from this, year-end fund balances are projected to be the following:

• $6.85 million for the education fund
• $2.32 million for the operations and maintenance fund
• $1.11 million for the working cash fund
• $796,333 for the tort liability fund
• $762,182 for the transportation fund
• $727,915 for the fire prevention and safety fund
• $205,335 for the municipal retirement/Social Security fund
• $182,073 for the capital projects fund
• $98,951 for the debt service fund
• Total: $13,052,789

Even with the increased costs for wages and health insurance, among additional expenses on the rise, Darnell said he still expects the budget to be close to balance by the end of the fiscal year. This has been the trend for recent years, and he expects it to be close yet again without an increase in the property tax rate.

“We’re pretty fortunate in the sense that we’ve been able to maintain a very slight surplus budget over the last couple of years while also reducing the tax rate,” Darnell said. “We’re trying to not do any more than we have to to maintain a budget that’s appropriate. I think, for this year, it’s going to be another year like the last several, where we’re going to end up within a half a million dollars of a balanced budget, and it could go either direction depending on extremes. We don’t want to have a million-dollar-surplus budget. Sometimes it happens because of anomalies, but our goal is to be pretty close to balanced, and I think we’ll do that again this year.”

For more information on the new positions voted on and other business discussed during the Aug. 6 school board meeting, head to the Ford County Chronicle’s website.