Last week the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 Board of Education unanimously approved a budget for the current fiscal year that projects a budget surplus of nearly $8.4 million.
But $7.2 million of that surplus will be transferred to the capital projects fund to help pay for Project 2.
The budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year forecasts more than $94.4 million in revenue and more than $86 million in operating expenditures.
The budget assumes that the tax levy that the school board is expected to approve in December will be a 3.5% increase over last year’s levy and less than the 5% increase, which is the maximum allowed by law.
Salary costs are expected to increase by approximately 5% this year and benefit costs are projected to increase by only 2.4 %.
About 77% of OPRF’s revenue comes from local property taxes and another 12% comes from other local sources. Eight percent of the school’s revenues comes from state aid, and 3% of the school’s revenues comes from the federal government.
OPRF is in a very strong financial position with the school’s cash reserves projected to be at approximately $62.5 million, or 73%of annual operating expenses at the end of July 2024. That fund balance is projected to increase to nearly $68.7 million and 76% of annual operating expenses at the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year before dramatically dropping to about $41.3 million at the end of the 2025-26, and to just more than $33.5 million by the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year as cash reserves are projected to pay for nearly half of the Project 2 construction costs. But even after that dramatic drop in the fund balance, OPRF’s cash reserves are still projected to be at a healthy 35% of the operating budget at the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Consultant and new buildings and grounds director hired
In other action, the school board unanimously approved a consulting contract with former OPRF administrator Michael Carioscio for an amount not to exceed $77,870. Carioscio is a former OPRF chief operations officer and former chief information officer who retired in 2020.
Carioscio was brought back over the summer to help after the death of Fred Pruess, who had been the Director of Buildings and Grounds. In August, the school hired Curtis Alsip, who had been the director of facilities at Plainfield Community Consolidated District 202, to replace Pruess as the director of buildings and grounds at OPRF. Alsip will be paid an annual salary of $125,000, prorated to $110,961.64 this year because he did not start at OPRF until Sept. 11.
Carioscio will be paid $130 an hour to help in the onboarding of and transition to Alsip at buildings and grounds, provide support for construction projects, building cleaning and readiness, provide project support for information technology and assist new assistant superintendent of business services Anthony Arbogast in evaluating and outlining the structure of the technology department.
Carioscio is expected to work approximately 20 hours a week. He is expected to be available from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.
OPRF has not had a director of operations since Ron Anderson resigned late last year. Anderson was not replaced and the Director of Operations position was eliminated with Arbogast taking over most of that position’s responsibilities.
