From the Journal Star:

Instead of a $2 million surplus for 2008-09, Treasurer Guy Cahill told the board that reduced revenues will leave the district with a $2 million deficit. About $200,000 of that is from higher- than-anticipated costs to restructure Manual High School. Another fraction is in dispute with the state. But the main reason the district will have $145 million rather than the anticipated $147 million for next year’s operating budget is cuts by the state of Illinois.

How to plug the gap? HOI News explains:

Superintendent Ken Hinton said he wants to close Loucks-Edison as soon as next year. There was also talk at Monday’s school board meeting about getting rid of all the athletic directors and keeping only one for the entire district. Hinton is also asking for cuts in cafeteria, custodial, maintenance and security staff. He also suggested the district get rid of two central administration positions.

Another school closing. Yet, at the same time, they’ve acquired the former Social Security Administration building on Knoxville — a building they didn’t need — and approved spending $1.27 million out of the Buildings and Grounds fund — because they couldn’t go through the Public Building Commission — to renovate it. And they’re still sitting on $877,000 worth of houses on Prospect Road. Actually, the fair market value of the houses was only $609,540 (District 150 royally overpaid for them), and they’ve since razed one of them (FMV: $60,150), so the properties are probably worth approximately $549,390 at best. And they still have four superintendents on staff.

Getting less state money hurts, but it really hurts when you combine that with what I perceive as mismanagement at the local level.