The Centralia City Schools Board of Education approved a 2024-2025 district budget on Tuesday evening that contains a projected deficit of around $2.9 million.
Superintendent Craig Clark says, however, that the budget is based on conservative revenue estimates and more aggressive expense estimates, so district officials are hopeful that the actual numbers will result in a smaller deficit. He also notes that the majority of the anticipated deficit is due to building projects that have taken place across the district.
“You know, in the past these budgets have always come out to where we’ve always been money-ahead at the end, and I don’t know that this one will be any different.
It’s just that when you have these large-scale construction projects and you’ve gathered the money in the prior year, it’s going to show as a deficit. Another thing I will say is, we’ve been able to do three major building additions without a bond; we haven’t borrowed any money on this, and we’ve paid cash for this, and we’ve used grants.”
The budget covers the fiscal year running from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
Also on Tuesday, Clark reported to the board that the sixth-day attendance figure for the district this year stood at 1,035, which represents an increase of 14 students. However, Clark notes
that enrollment has diminished significantly overall over the past few decades, and he says he is interested in talking with other area officials about what can be done to bring more families to the community.
“We may be taking a look at trying to volunteer to work with the city, the chamber and some of the other community organizations to see what we can bring to the table to help try to attract some growth to this area.”
The City Schools Board approved several personnel moves during its meeting, including the employment of Kelly Carbaugh and Alisha Lewis as Central Middle School individual paraprofessionals and Allison Austin as Schiller School paraprofessional. The board also accepted the resignation of Hannah Crites and Amanda Horst as Centralia Junior High School
paraprofessionals, and accepted an intent-to-retire letter from paraprofessional Jo Ann Glenn at the end of the 2024-2025 school year.
The board also heard from City of Centralia Economic Development Director Derek Sherman and from Luke Eastin, executive director of the South Central Illinois Regional Planning and
Development Commission. Sherman and Eastin addressed the board about the upcoming expiration of Tax Increment Financing District 3 and the city’s desire to extend the life of the TIF
district.
