Oswego School District 308 said it is losing $8 million in state funding, and therefore the district will have to make across-the-board staffing cuts.

The district’s state funding has been cut to approximately $106.1 million from $114.1 million. The reason for the decrease in funding is because the district has been moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in the state’s evidence-based funding system.

Under the system, the funds flow first to the school districts that need them the most.

“That was significant for us,” District 308 chief financial officer and chief school business official Raphael Obafemi said. “We were just building our fund balance up in the last couple of years.”

The number of employees that will be cut is not yet known.

“We’re still working on it,” Obafemi said. “The budget is not finalized. We will know that when we send a preliminary budget to the board in August. August is when we will find out how much we’re getting from the state again, whether we’re Tier 2 or we go back to Tier 1.”

Several positions at the district administration center, both in leadership and support staff, are being cut, along with interventionist positions originally funded by federal ESSER/COVID relief dollars, officials said.

Every elementary building will retain at least one full-time staff member dedicated to student interventions, district officials said. A student interventionist is an educator who provides targeted academic or behavioral support to at-risk students.

Illinois uses a four-tier system to prioritize funding. Tier 1 districts, which have the lowest funding adequacy, receive the largest increases in state funding.

Shifting to Tier 2 means a district is deemed less “in need” than other districts, influencing the percentage of new state aid it receives.

As equalized assessed valuation increases, in general, districts move closer to adequate funding, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. That also is true when enrollment decreases.

“In the last few years, the value of property here has gone up,” Obafemi said. “The higher your tier, the less money you get from the state.”

The district covers about 68 square miles, with students not only in Oswego, but also Aurora, Joliet, Montgomery, Plainfield and Yorkville.

The district’s enrollment has decreased in the last seven years, from 17,384 students in the 2017-18 school year to 16,140 students in the 2023-24 school year, according to a recent district enrollment analysis.

District 308 Superintendent Andalib Khelghati hopes the cuts will not impact the classroom.

“Ultimately, we want to keep everything as far away as possible from really hurting the quality of our classrooms,” he said.