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Cloverleaf asks state to take over financial operations
WESTFIELD TWP. — Unable to produce a plan for a balanced budget by the end of the academic year, Cloverleaf Schools is asking the state to take over financial operations.
The school board unanimously passed a resolution Monday night to ask the state to place the district on fiscal emergency, the third and final tier of the state’s categorization of districts in financial trouble.
Daryl Kubilus
If the request is approved, a state-appointed five-member board would be in charge of Cloverleaf’s finances within 15 days.
Cloverleaf’s elected school board still would make decisions affecting policy.
After almost eight years on fiscal watch, the second tier, Superintendent Daryl Kubilus said this year is the first time the district has been unable to come up with a way to balance the budget by the end of the fiscal year.
“We’ve done some amazing things with limited resources,” Kubilus said. “The thought of tearing some of this down and going to state minimums is devastating to me as an educator.”
The district is facing a $580,000 deficit by the end of June 2012 and a $2.6 million hole in 2013, he said.
When faced with previous deficits, Kubilus said, the board was able to make cuts that sustained the financial picture in the short term.
“At this point in time, we have cut so much that my fear is that what makes a Cloverleaf education is going to be compromised,” Kubilus said.
Over the last few years, he said, $4 million has been cut from the budget, including more than 50 staff members and several extracurricular activities. Students do not go on field trips that do not have an outside funding source.
Administrators are in the second year of a two-year pay freeze, Kubilus said. Teachers took a step and base salary freeze this school year and a health care concession that saved the district $700,000.
For each of the last three years, the district has borrowed about $1 million in January to be able to pay its staff, Kubilus said.
He added the loans, which were paid back annually, cost the district an extra $5,000 in fees each year.
The district again will borrow $1.3 million from a bank this January, Kubilus said, but it won’t be enough.
Districts on fiscal emergency are able to borrow interest-free from the state’s fiscal stabilization fund, Kubilus said, a major reason why Cloverleaf is asking to be bumped up a tier.
“When you borrow money, you have to pay it back,” he said.
The district has asked the community for support several times, most recently last month when voters defeated a 6.5-mil levy 4,627 votes to 2,889, according to official election results. The tax would have brought in $3 million a year for 10 years and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $204.75 a year.
Kubilus said the issue is not necessarily a lack of support from the community, but more a reflection of the times.
“School levies are one of the few times they can make a choice about how they can spend their money,” Kubilus said. “I think people are hurting right now and that affected us at the ballot.”
He said he should know this month whether the state will place the district on fiscal emergency. The label occasionally is forced on districts with bad financial situations, Kubilus said, but Cloverleaf officials decided to alert the state ahead of not being able to provide a balanced budget.
The five-member board that would make financial decisions for the district would include three local members, but all would be state-appointed.
Kubilus said he does not know what kind of cuts the board could make, but state minimums are a reality.
“Cloverleaf has never been about minimums,” he said. “Excellent school districts aren’t about minimums.”
WESTFIELD TWP. — Unable to produce a plan for a balanced budget by the end of the academic year, Cloverleaf Schools is asking the state to take over financial operations.
The school board unanimously passed a resolution Monday night to ask the state to place the district on fiscal emergency, the third and final tier of the state’s categorization of districts in financial trouble.
Daryl Kubilus
If the request is approved, a state-appointed five-member board would be in charge of Cloverleaf’s finances within 15 days.
Cloverleaf’s elected school board still would make decisions affecting policy.
After almost eight years on fiscal watch, the second tier, Superintendent Daryl Kubilus said this year is the first time the district has been unable to come up with a way to balance the budget by the end of the fiscal year.
“We’ve done some amazing things with limited resources,” Kubilus said. “The thought of tearing some of this down and going to state minimums is devastating to me as an educator.”
The district is facing a $580,000 deficit by the end of June 2012 and a $2.6 million hole in 2013, he said.
When faced with previous deficits, Kubilus said, the board was able to make cuts that sustained the financial picture in the short term.
“At this point in time, we have cut so much that my fear is that what makes a Cloverleaf education is going to be compromised,” Kubilus said.
Over the last few years, he said, $4 million has been cut from the budget, including more than 50 staff members and several extracurricular activities. Students do not go on field trips that do not have an outside funding source.
Administrators are in the second year of a two-year pay freeze, Kubilus said. Teachers took a step and base salary freeze this school year and a health care concession that saved the district $700,000.
For each of the last three years, the district has borrowed about $1 million in January to be able to pay its staff, Kubilus said.
He added the loans, which were paid back annually, cost the district an extra $5,000 in fees each year.
The district again will borrow $1.3 million from a bank this January, Kubilus said, but it won’t be enough.
Districts on fiscal emergency are able to borrow interest-free from the state’s fiscal stabilization fund, Kubilus said, a major reason why Cloverleaf is asking to be bumped up a tier.
“When you borrow money, you have to pay it back,” he said.
The district has asked the community for support several times, most recently last month when voters defeated a 6.5-mil levy 4,627 votes to 2,889, according to official election results. The tax would have brought in $3 million a year for 10 years and cost the owner of a $100,000 home $204.75 a year.
Kubilus said the issue is not necessarily a lack of support from the community, but more a reflection of the times.
“School levies are one of the few times they can make a choice about how they can spend their money,” Kubilus said. “I think people are hurting right now and that affected us at the ballot.”
He said he should know this month whether the state will place the district on fiscal emergency. The label occasionally is forced on districts with bad financial situations, Kubilus said, but Cloverleaf officials decided to alert the state ahead of not being able to provide a balanced budget.
The five-member board that would make financial decisions for the district would include three local members, but all would be state-appointed.
Kubilus said he does not know what kind of cuts the board could make, but state minimums are a reality.
“Cloverleaf has never been about minimums,” he said. “Excellent school districts aren’t about minimums.”
