Minooka 201 Audit Report 2010 (or What Was All That Accounting Talk About?)

Those of you who attended the November 17, 2010 meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board and stayed for the business portion of the meeting may have been wondering what the lengthy discussion between our auditor and myself was about (those of you who did not attend were saved the boredom of listening to a discussion of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards 5). Well, in accounting jargon, what we were talking about were "contingent liabilities." "Contingent liabilities" are potential obligations that a school district or other entity may be faced with having to pay in the future. They can arise in a variety of ways, but they are generally the result of losing a lawsuit or settling a lawsuit out of court. In the case of Minooka CCSD 201, the contingent liabilities at issue arose from appeals of property tax assessments on two separate pieces of property. Now contingent liabilities, according to financial accounting standards (SFAS 5) must be disclosed on an entity's financial statements when they are "probable" and the liability can be "reasonably estimated." This is what the discussion was about. Our audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010 were subsequently approved at the December 1, 2010 special meeting. Click here for a link to the Minooka CCSD 201 audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010. The contingent liability disclosure is on pages 34 and 35.

As you can see from the financial statements, we are dealing with very large expected liabilities in terms of our annual budget (in one case $5,700,000 and in the other case $2,800,000, for a total of $8,500,000). These numbers represent the "estimated" liability (a best guess given current information), so the ultimate liabilities could be greater or less than the "estimated" amounts. The good news is that we have some large fund balances. The bad news is that these liabilities are also large. In fact, if they had to be paid today at the "estimated" amounts, our fund balances would be reduced by roughly one third.

Those who read the article in the Morris Herald regarding our fund balances (the same article appeared in November 25, 2010 edition of the Southwest Herald) might want to consider that article in light of the financial statement disclosure regarding contingent liabilities. Once you subtract the amounts represented by the contingent liabilities, our fund balances would be one third less than that shown on our balance sheet and our budget.

Fitness Machines and Track Proposal

A number of people who read the agendas for the December 15th meetings asked for more information regarding the "PE/Fitness Equipment" and the "Track Proposal" (Items E and F on the Committee of the Whole agenda). So, I thought I would post a brief description of both items.

First, the "PE/Fitness Equipment" is a proposal to purchase weight training machines, treadmills, elliptical machines and stationary bicycles for each of the Minooka Intermediate School (the 5th and 6th graders) and the Minooka Junior High School (the 7th and 8th graders). Click here for the proposed fitness room layout at the Minooka Intermediate School, and click here for the proposed fitness room layout at the Minooka Junior High School. The total cost is estimated to be approximately $200,000 (or $100,000 for each school).

Second, the "Track Proposal" is a proposal to construct an all-weather track, soccer field and other track event areas inside the bus loop at the Minooka Intermediate School/Minooka Junior High School campus. Click here for a proposed layout of the track and soccer field. The total cost for this project is estimated to be approximately $1.5 million.

If anyone has further questions regarding these proposals, please do not hesitate to send me an email at dpmartin1775(at)yahoo.com (replace the "(at)" with the "@" sign).

Email Subscriptions Now Available

By popular demand, I have now added email subscription capability to my Minooka 201 blog. Basically, how this works is you subscribe using your email address. After performing a couple of steps to authorize the subscription, you will receive an email of every new post to this blog. Now, you no longer have to check this site from time to time to see if I have added something new. Each time I add something new, presto, you receive an email. The subscription "gadget" appears just after my bio information on the right. Just enter the email address where you would like to receive updates, click the "Subscription" button, follow the steps to validate the subscription, and you are ready to receive updates.

Link to Agenda for December 15, 2010 Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board will take place this Wednesday, December 15, 2010. Click here to be taken to the agendas for the Committee of the Whole Meeting, the Truth in Taxation Hearing and the regular Board Meeting. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Truth in Taxation Hearing regarding the 2010 tax levy starts at 6:45 p.m. in the gymnasium at the Minooka Primary Center. The Truth in Taxation Hearing will be followed by the regular Board Meeting. Each of the meetings is open to the public and everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

Online Education: The Future of K-12 Education?

The internet has changed our lives in many ways, from the way we get our news to the way we shop to the way we keep in touch with people. It also has the potential to change the way in which we educate our children. Many parents who homeschool their children have used the internet for years to access quality curriculum (click here to visit the website of one such online education provider). In addition, in the past few years, many states have started "virtual schools" where public school students can take many or all of their courses online. Recent studies have shown the use of online courses is growing rapidly for K-12 education. Click here for a report from an education consulting firm that keeps up with developments in the use of online K-12 instruction by individual states.

According to the report, the Illinois Virtual School (click here for their website) had approximately 2,500 course enrollments last year (down from about 2,900 the previous year). Florida, by comparison, is one of the leading states with respect to the use of online instruction for K-12 education with over 200,000 course enrollments last year in the Florida Virtual School (click here for their website).

While still in its infancy, online K-12 education presents some interesting possibilities for the future: from expanding course offerings to fit the varied interests of students to allowing students to do some or all of their courses online rather than in the traditional classroom.

Government Transparency: Part III (Video Recorded Meetings?)

Another issue that arises when thinking about government transparency is the question of video recording meetings. Given our current state of technology, it would be relatively easy to video record the Minooka CCSD 201 school board meetings and post the videos to a website where people could view them on their computers. With our busy schedules and so many other things competing for our time, it is difficult for many people to attend school board meetings. Video recording would allow interested persons to watch school board meetings with ease and convenience. There is, however, some time, effort and expense that must be incurred to video record meetings and then post them to a website. So, I would like some feedback from those of you who read this blog. Would this be something that you are interested in? Do you think that it would be worth the time, effort and expense? You can either submit a comment to this blog or email me at dpmartin1775(at)yahoo.com (replace the "(at)" with the "@" symbol).

As you are considering this issue, consider that many other local government bodies in Illinois, including school districts, make videos of their meetings available to the public. Click here, here, here and here for examples of some local government bodies that make video recordings of their meetings available.

Minooka 201 Annual Statement of Affairs for 2010

The Minooka CCSD 201 Annual Statement of Affairs for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010 is now available on the District website. Click here to be taken to the annual statement.

The Back Door Referendum: Part II

My first post on the "back door referendum" has provoked quite a few comments (I have declined to publish the comments to protect anonymity). Some concern has been raised that Minooka CCSD 201 may be considering a "back door referendum" in the near future. At this time, there is no cause for concern. My initial post on this subject was merely for informational purposes. To my knowledge, the Minooka CCSD 201 school board has not had any discussions about an imminent or proposed "back door referendum." If this issue arises in the future, I will publish a post on this blog. It will then be up to the voters to decide if they want to force the school board to put the question to the voters of the district in a subsequent election. According to Illinois law, petitions can not be circulated until a school board has voted on and approved a "back door referendum" and thereby started the 30 day time clock. Interested persons can, however, begin getting together and planning to gather signatures. With decent prior planning and the help of the internet and email, it would be relatively easy to gather the signatures of 10 percent of the registered voters of the district. The people who gathered signatures in the recent Palatine SD 15 case were able to gather hundreds more signatures than they needed.

I have also received a number of questions regarding bonds and school finance in general. In the near future, I will attempt to explain certain aspects of school finance. At the most recent school board convention (a couple of weeks ago), I attended a number of seminars, one of which was on the topic of school finance and issuance of school bonds. I will share what I learned.

Plainfield CCSD 202 Budget Survey

Many school districts in our area and around the state are experiencing budget problems similar to the problems we are experiencing here in Minooka CCSD 201. Plainfield CCSD 202 is one of those school districts that is also trying to eliminate its budget deficit. As part of their deficit reduction process, they have used the internet to gather comments and suggestions from their constituents. Click here to view their web-based deficit reduction survey.

Next Minooka 201 School Board Meeting

The next meeting of the Minooka CCSD 201 school board is December 15, 2010. The Committee of the Whole Meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. in the board room (the old library) at the Minooka Primary Center located at 305 Church Street in Minooka. The Committee of the Whole Meeting will be followed by the regular Board Meeting at 7 p.m. Please be sure to mark your calendars.