Lincoln Way Community High School District 210 adopted its fiscal year 2026 budget unanimously after a public budget hearing that the board closed by voice vote. The board was told the budget includes a planned, nonrecurring operating deficit tied to recent bus purchases and financing timing.
The budget matters because it sets the district’s spending and reserves for the year, and board members were presented with figures showing both revenue and spending changes from the tentative budget adopted in August. District staff described the budget as “stable” while noting specific, one-time items that increase spending in the transportation fund.
District finance staff summarized the major changes. They said investment-earnings entries were moved between funds to balance needs across the district and that facility rental rates were adjusted to reflect higher staffing and wage costs for custodial and event coverage. On transportation, staff described a $4,000,000 line-item change related to a recently purchased set of buses and explained the district plans to use a debt-certificate financing approach to purchase future buses rather than continuing short-term leases. “It’s just like a lease payment. We pay we pay it back out of operating funds,” staff said when describing the financing model.
Staff also told the board that because bus payments can cross fiscal years, the payment timing creates a one-time operating deficit of about $814,000 in the FY2026 operating funds, and that the district expects to maintain a roughly 34% operating fund balance. The report shows a 3.73% increase in operating revenues over the prior year and a 7.71% increase in operating spending; staff said backing out the bus invoices reduces the year-over-year spending increase to about 4.3%.
Board members asked clarifying questions about whether the deficit was structural; staff said it was not and described the deficit as nonrecurring and related to the bus payments. Staff also noted that the district purchased new buses rather than refurbished units, and that partial payments sometimes fall in different fiscal years when vehicles are ordered and received.
After the hearing, the board voted unanimously to close the hearing, to approve invoices presented for the period and to adopt the FY2026 budget. Voting was called and recorded as unanimous on each motion.
The board packet and staff presentation also highlighted other fund-level changes: an allocation of about $4.5 million for capital projects transfer separate from life-safety bond-funded HVAC work, a reduction of approximately $580,000 moved out of the education fund into another fund for balancing purposes, and a plan to ladder life-safety bond proceeds to maximize investment earnings until projects require cash. Board members said they were satisfied that the budget team had refined assumptions and that the planned deficit reflected timing and capital financing rather than recurring operational growth.