Frequently Asked Questions

This is a "structural deficit," meaning our expenses are growing faster than our revenue. Several factors hit at once:

• The "Cliff": One-time federal pandemic (ESSER) funds that supported extra staff have expired.
• Revenue Caps: Under Illinois law, our primary income (property taxes) is capped. While inflation has driven up the cost of supplies, utilities, and salaries, our revenue cannot legally keep pace.
• Investment Income: Historically high interest earnings that previously "masked" the deficit have returned to normal levels.
• The CPI vs. Cost Gap: While local revenue is tied to CPI, our primary expenditures, salaries and benefits, have grown at a rate that exceeds CPI. Because school districts are labor-intensive, even a modest increase in total revenue often fails to cover the compounding costs of contractual obligations and healthcare

Yes. The Board of Education and administration have shared five-year forecasts for several years, showing this "gap" approaching. We made an intentional choice during the pandemic to use reserves and federal funds to keep staffing levels high—even as enrollment declined—to prioritize student mental health and academic recovery. Additionally, salary and benefit costs have grown faster than inflation, which further accelerated the growth of the anticipated deficit. We are acting now to fix the structural math before it becomes a true financial emergency.

Using reserves to pay for salaries is like using a savings account to pay a monthly mortgage when your paycheck doesn't cover the bill. It works for a few months, but once the savings are gone, the mortgage is still due. If we used reserves for recurring salaries this year, we would still have the same $12.4 million problem next year, but with no savings left to fall back on. 

It is important to understand the difference between our 'savings account' and our 'monthly paycheck.' The $10 million returned to taxpayers during the pandemic was a one-time use of our reserve funds (our savings). While that $10 million exists as a single data point in our history, it is not the cause of today’s $12.4 million deficit. Our current challenge is a structural deficit, meaning our ongoing yearly expenses for salaries and benefits are now higher than our ongoing yearly revenue. Even if we had kept that one-time $10 million, it would only have covered a portion of this year's gap, and we would still be facing these problems in the coming years. We must fix the structural imbalance of our yearly budget to remain sustainable.

The Naperville Unit Education Association's collective bargaining agreement includes a retirement incentive for post-retirement insurance. The agreement requires educators to provide notice to be eligible for the benefit or it is reduced. The recent Memorandum of Agreement between the district and the NUEA eliminates the requirement of the advanced notice for staff to be eligible for the benefit without a reduction. 

When preparing the budget reductions, the District first conducted a comprehensive review of all spending beyond personnel to evaluate what is considered discretionary and where costs could be reduced or eliminated.

While we identified several areas for savings, it is important to note that many costs outside of salaries are non-discretionary essentials. This includes items such as fuel for our buses, instructional materials and workbooks, utilities, and our District website. Additionally, certain categories like professional learning are often funded through federal grants that are restricted to those specific purposes and cannot be moved to cover other gaps.

However, through this rigorous analysis, we successfully identified discretionary spending that could be reduced or eliminated, including:

• Eliminating non-essential travel.

• Consolidating redundant software platforms.

• Bringing specific specialized services in-house.

• Implementing broad department-level spending cuts.

Through these non-personnel reductions, the administration is anticipating reducing the deficit by nearly $4 million. However, because salaries and benefits make up the vast majority of our operating budget, it is mathematically impossible to bridge the entire $12.4 million structural deficit without also streamlining staffing levels to align with our current student enrollment.  We are streamlining staff through the use of retirements and resignations, by not replacing positions that can be eliminated. 

Since salaries and benefits make up over 80% of the annual budget, cutting $12.4 million dollars would not be possible without reviewing our staffing and making adjustments in this area. 

Overall staffing reductions were reviewed only after all discretionary spending was analyzed, and non-personnel reductions were determined. Administrative reductions were reviewed first, prior to analyzing the staffing models for our educators and support staff. To meet our financial goals while minimizing the impact on our current workforce, the District is prioritizing the use of attrition, leveraging scheduled retirements and resignations, to naturally streamline staffing levels.

The previous transportation facility was deemed to be uninhabitable moving forward and is utilized daily throughout the year by over 120 Naperville 203 employees. While we are relying on a temporary lease, this is not a long-term solution. It’s important to distinguish between one-time capital investments and our ongoing operating budget. Projects like the new transportation center are one-time costs designed specifically to lower our long-term operating expenses. By investing now in a modern, energy-efficient facility, we eliminate the 'money pit' of repairing trailers that have far surpassed their lifespan. We are trading expensive, emergency maintenance costs for long-term stability and safety. By owning our facility and managing our fleet more efficiently, we reduce our reliance on expensive outside contractors. 

To learn more, please visit our New Transportation Facility page. 

The projects currently underway were each individually discussed in public session and formally approved by the Board of Education. These are essential infrastructure updates funded by a strategic transfer from the District’s "savings account" (Fund Balance) to the Capital Projects Fund (Fund 60). The decision to fund these projects through reserves is a direct application of Board Policy 4:20. The policy mandates that when the District’s aggregate fund balance exceeds the 20% threshold, the administration must recommend uses for those excess funds.

Policy 4:20 explicitly states that "priority will be given to non-recurring expenses." By using these surplus reserves for one-time construction and infrastructure needs, the District:

1. Avoids taking on new long-term debt (bonds) and the associated interest costs.

2. Follows the Board’s directive to "right-size" the fund balance back toward the 10-20% target range.

3. Addresses critical facility needs that, if ignored, would lead to higher emergency repair costs in the future.

It is a common misconception that stopping a construction project will balance the operational budget. The tentative $3.9 million structural deficit is an operational issue (where annual revenue is less than annual expenses). The millions in capital spending is a one-time transfer of savings.

Stopping these projects, which have already begun, would not reduce the structural deficit; it would only leave the District with inefficient and unsafe facilities with active construction projects. By completing these projects now, we are utilizing existing savings to improve student environments and long-term energy efficiency.

At the March 16th Board of Education meeting, the Board approved a modified staffing recommendation for certified educators and administrators.  That modified staffing reduced our administrative staff by 7 positions and reduced our certified educators by 43 positions.  Following that meeting, the administration utilized attrition to also reduce our educational support personnel by 9 positions.  This streamlined staffing model results in a savings of approximately $4 million.