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Grimm: state budget doesn’t save 205 from financial woes

District 205 Superintendent Ralph Grimm says that even though the district will receive about $600,000 more from the state than last year, they will still be presenting a budget deficit this year.

He says that increase is largely because of a poverty grant that was a part of the budget package the General Assembly passed.

Grimm tells Galesburg’s Morning News on WGIL Thursday’s appropriations don’t solve all of the issues with district finances.

“At the end of the day we still have issues that our spending is outpacing our revenue. So we’ll use the money to the best of our ability this year but we need to be mindful going forward that we still have significant budget issues,” Grimm says.

He says positions that were cut as a part of spring’s budget reduction process to align district enrollment with staffing levels will not be brought back.

Enrollment has declined for the past 11 years and Grimm doesn’t see anything to indicate that trend will change.

He emphasizes “Operation Rebuild”, the plan to renovate and rebuild schools, is done and is not the reason for the deficit.

Contracts with most district employees are already set, which makes it difficult to make major overnight expenditure changes. 

Next year’s employee salaries are projected to increase by $1 million.

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