The tentative budget for the 2027 fiscal year, ending June 30, 2027, that was unveiled at the Aug. 6 meeting of the Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 Board of Education projects an operating surplus of a little more than $900,000 but when all funds, including capital expenditures for construction are taken into account, a total net deficit of nearly $7.5 million.
The school’s overall cash reserve is projected to decline to approximately $38 million from the approximately $45.5 million cash on hand as of June 30 of this year. That decline in the school’s cash balance is expected since OPRF has been spending down its once abundant reserves by using $44.2 million in cash reserves to help pay for the nearly completed mostly new physical education wing in the southeast corner of the building called Project 2.
In the school’s operating funds revenues are projected to exceed expenses by $16.5 million but in non-operating funds expenses are projected to exceed revenues by $24 million. Total expenditures are projected to be just over $129.5 million, of which just over $98.6 million will be operating expenditures. Total revenues are expected to be just over $122 million. Approximately $28 million of the non-operating spending will go to capital projects while $3.2 million will go to debt service to continue to pay off the approximately $45 million the school borrowed to pay for Project 2.
OPRF’s total cash reserves are projected to decline from just over $45.5 million as of June 30 to just over $38 million a year later, with just over $33.5 million of those cash reserves being in operating funds or about 34 percent of annual operating expenditures. OPRF’s school board has targeted a cash reserve to annual operating expenditures ratio of between 25 and 50% with the OPRF business office recommending a 33% ratio. The school’s operating fund balance is projected to increase by approximately $900,000 this year.
OPRF has been transferring money from its well-off education fund to its capital projects fund to help pay for Project 2 and other capital expenses. In the 2027 fiscal year $15.6 million is expected to be transferred from operating funds to non-operating funds with $4.7 million of that going to Project 2, $7.7 million going for 10-year maintenance projects and design work for Act 3, the next phase of remaking the campus, and $3.2 million going to debt payments.
“The district continues to make a substantial investment in its facilities as capital expenditures ($27.7 million) make up 21% of the district’s total FY 2027 budget,” the district’s tentative budget report states. “The deficit generated by those expenditures will be covered by $15.6 million of transfers from the Operating Funds.”
This year’s budget is expected to be bolstered by two large one-time government grants that OPRF expects to receive this fiscal year, an $8.9 million grant from the federal government to help pay for the work to create the school’s new geothermal heating and cooling system and a $3.5 million grant from the state of Illinois which was obtained with the help of the Imagine Foundation.
With these two grants OPRF’s revenues are expected to increase 16.12%. Without the grants revenues would increase by a more typical 4.3% while operating expenditures are projected to increase by 6.12%.
OPRF Director of Finance Brian Imhoff told the school board that the federal grant isn’t expected to be received until May or June of next year and said that it is possible that it could be delayed.
The school board is expected to vote to approve the tentative budget at its Aug. 20 meeting. After the tentative budget is approved it will be put on public display for 30 days before the board votes to adopt the final budget at its Sept. 24 meeting.
Total construction expenses for the 2027 fiscal year, which began on July 1, are estimated to be approximately $18.2 million for Project 2, nearly $7.1 million for regular building maintenance, $1,748,100 in mostly design expenses for Act 3, the proposed demolition and rebuilding of the southwest section of the school with a focus on music and arts spaces, $502,175 for the school’s geothermal project, and $154,00 in state mandated life safety physical improvements. Some $930,000 of the anticipated spending on Act 3 is contingent on the passage of a bond referendum in April 2027 to borrow the money for Act 3. The school board won’t decide until late this year whether to put a referendum on the ballot next April and a few board members have indicated that they do not support holding an Act 3 referendum next year.
OPRF expects to receive $89.2 million in revenue from property taxes this year, a $7.8 million increase from fiscal year 2026. Last December the school approved a 4.4% increase in the property tax levy as well as an additional $700,000 levy which was permitted because the district did not levy the maximum amount possible the three previous years.
The school’s overall financial situation remains strong but the cash reserve is approaching its target level and spending decisions may get tougher in future years as operating deficits are projected after this current year.
OPRF tends to budget conservatively. Imhoff told the school board that actual expenses have come in one to two million dollars under budget in each of the last three years.
Overall salaries are projected to increase this year by about $2.4 million, or 4.2%, mostly due to the new teachers contract while employee benefit costs are projected to increase by about $900,000 or 6.88%. Two thirds of that increase comes from a rise in the cost of health insurance.
Imhoff said that special education outplacement costs at specialized schools continue to increase at a rapid rate.
“We have very little control over these costs because these students require services that can’t be provided in-house,” Imhoff said. “All it takes is one or two students with severe needs to blow up the budget.”
Special education expenses, especially tuition at specialized schools where students with severe needs are outplaced, are projected to increase by about $1 million or around 18% this year. Outplacement tuition costs are projected to exceed $4 million this year while outplacement room and board costs at specialized schools are expected to be about $1.5 million. Special education transportation costs are projected to be a little over $2.5 million.
“The budget anticipates there will be 5 more students outplaced in private schools to begin FY 2027 as compared to the end of FY 2026,” the budget report states. “There is also an expectation that 2 additional students will be placed at residential facilities, which on average cost $210,000 per student for room and board expenses.”
Difficult decisions will likely have to be made in upcoming years if the school board wants to keep the cash reserve at around 33% of annual operating expenditures. According to the school’s five-year budget projection OPRF is expected to run operating deficits in the years after this one. The operating deficits are projected to be just over $2 million in the 27-28 and 28-29 fiscal years before rising to around $4.5 million in the 29-30 and 30-31 school years. According to the five-year projection cash reserves are projected to drop to 18% of annual operating expenditures by the end of 30-31 school if present patterns continue. The five-year forecast assumes modest inflation of two percent in 2027, 2028, and 2029 which would hold down the property tax levy which is tied to the Consumer Price Index.