Posted: June 17, 2009

Shorewood - School Board President Paul Kovic searched for words to define a budget that will definitely change between its adoption Tuesday night and its final approval in October.

"Preliminary," "still-in-flux," "conceptual" were some of the words he used to describe the unbalanced 2009-10 budget general fund and special education budget in which expenses exceed revenue by $95,002. Revenue of $22,466,151 is projected in the budget while expenses total $22,561,153.

"We need to approve this budget so we can begin to expend funds on July 1," Kovic said. The budget year for school districts is from July 1 to June 30.

"We will be working on and revising this budget into October," he said.

The balanced 2008-09 budget totaled $22,288,830.

Member Nancy Bornstein said the budget includes three classrooms of K5 students at Lake Bluff School with three teachers and no aides, and two K5 classrooms at Atwater with two teachers and two aides. There are 52 students enrolled in K5 at each school. Parents at those schools supported the staffing plans, Bornstein said.

There are 53 K4 students at Lake Bluff School who will be divided into three classes and 37 K4 students at Atwater who will be in two sections. There will be three sections of first grade at each school, Bornstein said.

The preliminary budget includes another 10 Open Enrollment students. The district earlier accepted 37 students for next year.

The board on Tuesday night approved the additional students, although there is some uncertainty as to whether the state budget will cap Open Enrollment numbers and prevent the addition.

The district would have 176 Open Enrollment students under the budget plan.

Bornstein said volunteers have been working to create a database and information on the Open Enrollment program.