With St. Charles School District 303 looking at a surplus of more than $2 million because of reduced expenses, School Board members are looking at possibly using those funds to replace buses and purchase new iPads and Chromebooks for students.

Staff is recommending part of the projected surplus – about $2 million – be spent on such necessary expenses as replacing buses and student devices. In light of the financial storm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the district last fall cut about $5 million in expenses and revenues to create a balanced budget.

The budget reductions were across the board, including in bus purchases and fuel, capital improvements, furniture and equipment and replacement of technology devices. Staff has recommended replacing six small buses and two wheelchair-lift buses along with three full buses at a cost of $763,362.

Staff also recommends that iPads and Chromebooks for pre-kindergarten through third grade students be replaced a a cost of $1.2 million.

“Most of the expenditures are due to salaries,” Seth Chapman, the district’s assistant superintendent of business services and chief financial officer, told board members at the School Board’s Business Services Committee meeting on Monday. “We’re not taking the number of field trips we have in the past, we’re not paying as much overtime, substitute costs are a little lower than they have been, things of that nature. So that’s why we’re seeing lower expenditures, among other reasons.”

Chapman has accepted the position of assistant superintendent for finance and operations for Glenbard District 87 and will be leaving Dist. 303 by the end of the school year.

On the expense side, the district is almost $5.5 million under budget and on the revenue side, the district is seeing a shortfall of $2.5 million.

“So we’re just under $3 million projected through Jan. 31,” Chapman said. “That number can change. I caution us not to be too set on that number because we’re kind of in an unusual year where history doesn’t help us as much and we’re still five months from a financial perspective from the end of the year. We will continue to monitor this. But that gives us a pretty good idea that we do have the availability to spend more funds if the board should have the desire to do that.”

The district’s current fiscal year ends June 30.

He noted that District 303 provided the in-person learning option at the beginning of the school year while other school districts didn’t provide that option until later in the year.

“And there are some districts in our area that didn’t start until the end of January,” Chapman said. “Based on that, that will have a huge impact on the amount of reserves both last year that were accumulated and this year that we are going to accumulate. When you’re seeing other districts talk about extremely large fund balances, their balances will likely be larger than what we will have based on that.”

Board member Heidi Fairgrieve, chairman of the Business Services Committee, thanked Chapman for explaining the budget situation.

“I think overall it’s a very good story for our district and we continue to be in a very solid financial position, which is important, especially during this time and environment,” she said.