LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
PARIS- Paris Union School District 95 is moving into the new year with its focus fixed on financial transparency and continued improvement. During Monday, Feb. 10’s monthly board meeting, Superintendent of Schools Mary Morgan Ryan took time to break down the process of creating the school’s budget and answer the board, and community’s, questions regarding the various pieces of the proposed 2025-26 school year budget-puzzle.
“Last year, in December, this board approved the 2024 levy. That vote was the beginning of developing the budget for the 2025-26 school year,” she explained. “The next step is to think about our assumptions and parameters for the budget for the school year.”
Morgan Ryan used examples of expenditures, including fluctuating enrollment trends, as ways the budget could see an increase or decrease in certain areas in the upcoming school year. The superintendent also used sources from differing area schools to forecast trending enrollment and potential shifts in expected costs.
“These things make all the difference to a school district because if you’ve got enrollment going one direction or the other, you know you will or won’t have extra room in the budget,” she said.
According to Morgan Ryan, she and school administrators discuss any and all potential large expenses, or “big-ticket items,” inducing any staffing changes that may be in the works in preparation for piecing together the school year’s budget.
“At the district level, we have to prioritize everyone’s requests into one budget that we bring to (the board),” Morgan Ryan said. “All during the spring, administrators are working with staff and I'm working with administrators on what we expect that we might need to spend next year. At the same time, I'm keeping track of what our revenues might be.”
The superintendent shared her plans to create and share a template with staff members throughout District 95 schools to streamline the process of gathering expenditures. Once the templates are completed Morgan Ryan and administrators will gather together and lay out all of the proposed costs and needs for the district.
“Everyone is going to present their budget requests so that everyone in the district is aware of what everyone else is thinking and needing,” she explained. “We will prioritize together and that is how we will successfully land.”
Expenditure requests look different for each group submitting them and the requests are also finalized in different ways, depending on the needs of each school, organization, group and the district’s budget.
“When the EAV is finalized, we'll know more about the tax money that we worked on in December together and when the state announces next year's EVF funding for us, that will be very important too because state evidence-based funding is half of our budget,” she said.
Twenty-eight percent of the district’s funding also comes from federal sources, and Morgan Ryan told the board that they would have to watch carefully throughout the process of finalizing the budget.
Another task that has to be factored into the budget is the requirement to have “cash on hand” available to the school.
“We can't spend everything we bring in. We have to begin a plan to put money away so we have that 180 days of cash on hand,” Morgan Ryan said.
As she presented the aspects of budget creation and planning with members of the board, Morgan Ryan stressed to board members that they will remain informed as the process develops during the upcoming months.
“Our goal is to land back here in August with a proposed budget,” she said. “In September, we will have a budget hearing, and you’ll be asked to approve the budget for the 2025-26 school year.”
Morgan Ryan also shared details of the 2025 levy, which will take place at the end of 2025’s calendar year, following the budget hearing in September, and how it can cause confusion among parents, teachers, staff, board members and members of the community.
“It can be confusing because it sits there in the middle of the school year, but that levy that will be passed in December will be for the next school year, just like the one done last December is for this school year,” Morgan Ryan said. “It is just a cycle that keeps going, and the levy this year does not impact the budget year that we are currently sitting in.”
During the same board meeting, Morgan Ryan also disclosed additional positive financial news with the board, sharing a letter the district received from its regional financial consultant.
“We are no longer required to submit quarterly financial reports to (her),” Morgan Ryan said. “She has conferred with her superiors and has told them that she feels we’re doing what we need to do and she no longer needs to provide that close of oversight any longer.”
The advisor will continue to monitor the district’s treasurer reports and remain in close contact with Morgan Ryan. Larson Woodyard and Henson of Paris will also begin providing the board with additional financial reports each month.
Whitney Manwarring, a partner with the financial company, attended the board meeting to explain how the board will now receive monthly reports reconciled from an outside source, as well as several previous reports from past months. The template Manwarring is using is based on a template from ISBE and formatted in a way the CPA believes will work best for the district.
“Each fund is listed separately,” she explained, walking board members through multiple aspects of the report they will now see.
Amid the positive news, Morgan Ryan shared an unfortunate update that funds for the high school’s current R3 Justice grant will be ending. The grant, also known as the Resort, Reinvest, Renew Grant, provides the wages students earn while working at locally owned businesses.
“We’ve been successful in partnering with local businesses and right now there are 26 students that are working as a result of the R3 grant. However, the funding ends on June 30,” Morgan Ryan said, adding. “We don’t anticipate an opportunity to reapply.”
The superintendent said the grant has been a benefit to local businesses and students at Paris Cooperative High School alike.
“It provides students with the opportunity to experience what it is like to have a job. The point of the grant is not for a kid to have a career experience, but for a student to experience what it is like to have a job, to know what it is like to have a boss, to know what it is like to interview, and to know what it is like to have work colleagues.”
Despite the end of the grant being within sight, the board motioned and approved the hiring of three students at $15 per hour under the grant before moving to an executive session.