School board meeting happened Monday night, and it was a good one. Not extremely eventful, but it was good nonetheless. It was mainly a very sobering budget conversation, bookended by outdoor heat safety at school events and a handful of consent items and resolution approvals.

One quick personal observation now that I have a few meetings under my belt... if you're not used to the whole "aye" and "nay," "motion" and "second" thing, I'd say the school board is the first place you should show up.

One, because you can really feel the heart of the individuals while they're speaking. And two (the main thing), students and their wellbeing and growth always stay at the forefront. Not politics, not some sort of agenda. Just individuals doing the best they can with what they have to make the educational system in Springfield better. And I really, really appreciate that.

Here's what I'll be covering:

TL;DR (Too Long Didn’t Read) at the bottom. Let's get to it.

Click to Watch the Replay

What happened? A board member raised questions about a recent football game at Memorial Stadium, where several students needed medical attention due to the heat.

Why it matters? You guessed it... student health. If it's too hot and humid during a school-sanctioned event and guidelines aren't followed, students can suffer heat-related illness, and that brings serious liability with it. So it's extremely important that the district follows these guidelines to a T.

Additional context. District 186 uses something called a wet bulb globe thermometer. It takes heat, humidity, sun, and wind and turns them into one reading, and that reading decides how hard kids can go. However it reads at the beginning of the event determines if it can start and then if it increases during the event, additional safeguards are added in order to keep everyone safe. It has color levels:

Here's the part that stuck with me. That Saturday, the game started in yellow. And every single kid who had issues was on the track (band, cheer, poms), not on the field. Nobody playing football had a problem.

The board gave a shoutout to the athletic trainer, who "for sure earned her paycheck that day." At one point she was working on two or three students at once when another went down, and with nobody free to help, a dad picked his daughter up and carried her to his car. If the athletic trainer is who I think she is, she works our wrestling tournaments too and does a great job. So kudos to her.

Then came the question: why not pause the game for the kids on the sidelines? I played sports my whole life, and it was the first time that had even occurred to me. She was right. When a football player, or anyone on the field, goes down, everything stops and players and cheerleaders alike take a knee. So why doesn't that happen for the cheerleaders or band members? Out of respect for fellow students, if nothing else.

No clear answer there. Once a game starts, officials control stoppages, so it may be an IHSA thing. Dr. Jordan said he'd get clarity. He also said:

I appreciated that. He didn't sugar coat it.

I'm going to shoot you straight…

The budget stuff is over my head. One, I'm new to the scene, and there's a lot of history and context behind these numbers that I just don't have yet. So please go watch it yourself (see here) and come to your own conclusions. Steve Miller (Director of Business, Finance and Operations) walked through it at length, and he explains it better than I can.

What I can give you is how I'm personally making sense of it. So consider everything below my take, not gospel.

What happened? The board held a public hearing, then approved the FY27 budget 7-0 with a deficit of roughly $10.8 million. (A board member noted a typo in the resolution and joked, "I was hoping it would be a decimal point." Miller: "You and me both.")

First thing worth mentioning: a school district isn't really in the business of making money. It doesn't sell a product.

Money does come in, just not in the traditional sense. See, as a small business owner, when I generate revenue, I can put that money toward anything I see fit. A school district can't. Almost all of its money comes from three places (local property taxes, the state, and the feds), and a lot of it comes with strings attached. It's basically told how it can and can't be spent.

So when one of those streams suddenly comes in lower than planned, it quickly becomes apparent how this starts to happen. This year it seems like a big issue was busing. According to Miller, state law says the district should get 80% of its transportation costs reimbursed. This year he expects the state to pay back 68% for regular ed and 55% for special ed (not official yet, but he's confident). That added roughly $3 million to the deficit between the first draft of the budget and the final one. 

And then there's the COVID money. District 186 got about $108 million in federal relief, and the last of it expired in the fall of 2024. Some of what the district started paying for with it is still being paid for... just now out of the regular budget. Dr. Jordan said they're going through every one of those contracts to see what they can live without.

All of that isn't to say there weren't issues before this. There likely were. But these are definitely contributing factors.

This is the part that made it click for me.

Board policy says the district should keep 15% of a year's spending in savings (they call it "fund balance"). In plain English, that's about two months' worth of bills. By next June, it's projected to be 5.6%. That's closer to three weeks.

Why does that matter? Miller put it this way. Say you mow lawns for a living. You make money March through November, but you don't have a plow on your truck, so winter pays nothing. You'd better have saved enough over the summer. The district is the lawn guy. State payments stop in November and don't pick back up until April. That savings account is what makes payroll in the winter.

And here's the catch. Pulling from savings to cover a deficit doesn't fix the deficit. You're still spending more than you bring in next month. As Miller said, they didn't right the ship, they "put a band-aid over it." A couple years ago that account sat above 20%. It's been covering the gap ever since. The only real fixes are bringing in more money or spending less.

Why not just bring in more money?

Short version: From my POV they mostly can't. Property taxes are capped, so they can only go up by inflation. Federal money is shaky and expected to drop. And a big chunk of property in town either isn't taxed at all (think the medical district) or is tied up in TIF districts. TIFs basically freeze the property tax schools get from an area for years, sometimes decades, and sends the growth to development projects instead. Seven of Springfield's nine TIFs sit inside District 186.

Labor is almost always the biggest expense in any business, and schools are about as people-heavy as it gets: teachers, aides, nurses, custodians, cooks, admin. Nationally, salaries and benefits run about 79–81% of what school districts spend. District 186 is sitting around 90%.

So when 90% of your budget is people, you can't cut enough out of the other 10% to close a $10.8 million gap. 

Reading between the lines…

I got the sense sitting and watching everyone’s faces that these folks, educators at their core, are mildly uncomfortable with this whole money thing, and with the idea that they have to be the bearer of bad news. Which I get. Money is a touchy topic for all of us, especially in a public forum where you're held accountable for the deficit in front of you. And for what it's worth, a board member pointed out that Miller is their fourth budget director in six or seven years. A lot of hands have been on this thing.

But we know who the buck stops with, and Dr. Jordan (who took over this year) inherited a hairy budget situation. He knows it and acknowledged it head on. He said they're re-evaluating every contract and trying to stay as far away from the classroom as possible, but they don't have enough information yet to say what gets cut.

A survey is going out to all district staff (one week to respond), and his cabinet is meeting weekly to keep the budget convo top of mind. He's also vowed to be transparent and give people plenty of notice before any decisions land. Plus the board has final say on any cuts.

Again, watch the budget portion for yourself. The next steps are coming sometime in the near future, and I think it's valuable for all of us to know what's on the way.

What happened? The board approved a one-year contract with Illinois Capital Group LLC, not to exceed $30,000, for legislative consulting. The contract gets evaluated every year. The vote was 6-1.

Why it matters? It's a fair question: if we're at this big of a deficit, why spend $30K on this? A board member essentially said as much, calling it "a little tone deaf" given this came up right after the extensive budget convo.

Additional context. Dr. Jordan's answer was pretty good, IMO. His point wasn't "this will make us money." It was "we need a voice at the table."

There was some back and forth between board members on why this was a good step, and I agree. Not to mention... what's $30K next to a $10.8 million deficit? To me, this can only help. And if it doesn't? It's a year-to-year contract. Don't renew it after year one. At $30K, there's not a ton of risk here.

Full disclosure: I know the owner of Illinois Capital Group. Good dude, and I like him on a personal level. He's a Springfield guy, he's a go-getter, and he's got every incentive in the world to make this work. So I think it'll prove beneficial. But take that with a grain of salt, since I'm not exactly neutral here.

DATES TO KNOW

The girls volleyball city tournament started Tuesday (9/22)! It runs through tonight at SHG's West Gym. First match at 6 p.m. each night, second match right after.

Is this you? A dad, a grandpa, an uncle, a coach, or just a guy who remembers what it was like to be a kid who didn't love reading?

The district needs more men for Real Men Read. 

Some of these kids don't have a man in their life reading to them. You could be that for 45 minutes a month. It's one of the easiest ways I know of to stay connected to your community and the next generation.

I’ve joined, and will start soon.

Call the District 186 office at (217) 525-3000

Until next time.