by Roy Taylor, Enterprise Correspondent

The Plainfield Board of Education discussed various aspects of its 1994-1995 budget at its Budget Work Study Session Monday night.

Superintendent Dr. David Stanfield and Director of Finance Steve Langert went over the figures of the tenative 1994-1995 budget, pointing out several areas in which the district seems financially healthy.

Langert first presented the district's education budget, which has increased approximately $2.5 million to an estimated $16,610,086, mostly due to increased property tax revenues. Along with this, aid from the State of Illinois should increase about $700,000, Board President Robert Smith said.

In addition to the increased funding, Smith said the district's cash flow situation is in better shape than it usually would be at this point in time. Langert said one reason for this is the District received a large amount of property taxes in June. Other factors for the increased cash flow include lower than expected health care and legal expenses, Stanfield said. Also this year, more revenue will be generated by the district's new food service contract with Arbor Management, according to Langert.

While the district's revenue situation looks favorable at this point in time, Smith also pointed out the effect new students will have on the overall financial picture. District 202 officials are planning for 700 new students this year, and by their estimates it costs roughly $5,000 per student each year. This totals a desired $3.5 million revenue increase, which has not been estimated to happen within the current tenative budget.

In another bugetary matter, the board agreed to remove copier and computer repair expenses from the overall supplies budget, which is divided on a per-pupil basis among all campuses in the district. By doing this, the board has "taken out systems that tend to harm the smaller campuses," Stanfield said.

For example, Crystal Lawns Elementary school has older computers than those at the other elementary schools, the junior high, and the high school. So by sharing computer repair money with the campuses with newer computers, Crystal Lawns officials sometimes had to use other supply budget money for that purpose, Langert said. The board agreed that creating a seperate line item would be a way to alleviate these problems in the future.

After removing these items from the "pie" (supply money divided on a per-pupil basis by the campuses), the board agreed to increase the overall supply budget by 15 percent for the coming year. In the original budget projections, district officials only recommended a 5 percent increase, but with enrollment increasing this year by 15 percent, board members agreed that anything less than a 15 percent increase would leave supplies underfunded.

Initially, board member Alan Litweller dissented, fearing that one school may incur a more drastic enrollment increase than another, leaving certain campuses witha surplus of supply money and others with a deficit. After considerable discussion, Litweller agreed with the 15 percent overall increase.

"This is what our budget is for, a cap on expenditures," Stanfield said.

Before adjourning to closed session, the board heard requests from building principals for additions to faculty, support, and custodial staff.