Finance Reports
A Look Inside Finance & Facilities with D70 Leaders
District 70's accounting records, budgets and financial reports are organized and reported on a fund basis. A fund is established for specific activities and objectives and is operated in accordance with laws, regulations, restrictions or other designated purposes. Each fund is a separate and independent accounting entity with its own assets, liabilities and fund balance. Below is an explanation of each part of the budget sectioned into funds.
The Education Fund is the the most significant of the district as it supports all the educational programs and encompasses approximately 80% of the District's financial activity. Teachers, Assistants, Administrative, and secretarial salaries and fringe benefits, curricular materials, student programs and athletics, food service and technology equipment, software and support, and district liability insurance are all examples of expenditures budgeted in the Educational fund.
The Operations & Maintenance Fund (O&M) is on the District's largest operating funds. It contains approximately 12% of the District's financial activity. The fund supports the daily operation of four (4) elementary schools, one (1) middle school and one (1) administration center. The main expenditures in ths fund are associated with Custodial, Maintenance, Administrative and Secretarial salary and fringe benefits, energy costs, equip and repair mechanical, plumbing and roofing of the buildings.
The Debt Service Fund allocates revenue and expenditures for all for the District's long and short-term debt. The debt is usually in the form of principal and interest payments for prior bond issues. The county clerk extends the necessary taxes each year to payoff the District debt obligations based on the board approved resolutions that were filled when the debt was issue. The District has several bond issues that they have pledged alternate revenue sources and the transfer amounts account for those alternative revenue sources.
The Transportation Fund supports the student transportation program. Revenue from the fund is received via property taxes, fuel reimbursements from District 73 and 128, and state reimbursement fro transportation. The state reimbursement portion has been prorated for several years below the statutory 80% reimbursement rate. The district outsources the transporting of students and most extra-curricular to Lakeside Transportation, a private bus contractor. This past school year, the District transported 1703 students over 374,213 miles on 44 different bus routes.
There are two sub-funds in the Municipal Retirement Fund. They are the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund and the F.I.C.A./Medicare Fund. They are organized into tow separate funds to coincide with tax levy. This supports the pension program for all non-certified employees. The District is required to contribute to this program if an employee works over 600 hours per year. Each year the contribution rate is set based on employee experience and in Fiscal Year 2018 the employer rate is 11.76%, an increase from 2.08% in Fiscal Year 2017. Revenues for the Municipal Retirement Fund come from the local tax levy and also Corporate Personal Property Replacement Taxes.
The Working Cash Fund can be used for internal borrowing. Internal borrowing usually occurs because of lake property tax collections and/or low fund balances. It is permissible to abate or permanently transfer funds from Working Cash Fund to thee fund most in need. Annually the District transfers the interest income earnings to the fund most in need. This fund can act like the District's "savings" account.