Champaign School Board Approves Balanced Budget For 2018

The Champaign Unit 4 School District has some good news after board members voted 7-0 to approve a new budget Monday night.

For 2018, the Champaign School District has a balanced budget in its four major funds and will not have to cut any spending.

Tom Lockman, Unit Four chief financial and legal officer, explained that the new state school funding formula means the school district will get more state aid.

"In addition our average daily attendance for students went up significantly last year which means an increase we receive in state aid," Lockman said.

While the state hasn’t released specific numbers yet, Lockman says the district will receive “several hundred thousand dollars more” in state aid.

The budget also includes line items for voter-approved construction projects at Central High School and Dr. Howard Elementary School.

"It will involve some demolition, site development work, survey work; those kinds of things," Lockman added.

The school district will take this fall and winter to prepare those projects to start in earnest in Spring of 2018.

Besides Champaign, Unit Four, other area school districts are also working on their budget plans for the school year. The Urbana, Mahomet-Seymour, Unit 7 (Tolono), Monticello, Charleston and Mattoon school boards approved their budgets earlier this month. The Decatur and Danville schools board will vote on their budget plans on Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept. 26 & 27), respectively.