The Dunlap School District 323 board is one meeting away from approving its 2016 budget. The District is enjoying increasing property values and enrollment, combined with the lowest tax rate in Peoria County.
Executive Director of Business Services Karen Beverlin says the district gets about 90 percent of its income from local revenue sources.
"Compared to other districts around the state, we are in a very good spot. Because we don’t rely on the state for funding," Beverlin said. "So when ours is primarily local property taxes, we’re able to counteract what we’re losing from the state.”
Dunlap’s starting fund balance for this academic year is nearly $39 million. Its expenditures and revenues in the proposed budget are up 3 percent compared to last year.
The district also added 34 new staff members and 11 teachers (four part-time and seven full-time) this year.
“We have projections that a company does for us all the way out through 2020," Beverlin said. "We use those projections when figuring the budget to know how many teachers we’re going to need, the class sizes we have now, kind of adding that staff as we go forward.”
Beverlin says the district is expanding its budget to meet the needs of its growing student population. Enrollment is up 149 students from last year, that’s about 3.5 percent.
The Dunlap School board is expected to pass a budget during its meeting Wednesday night.