A budget for the current school year is in place for District 186 … but the ink is red. Board members Monday gave superintendent Jennifer Gill a budget that’s about ten (m) milion dollars out of balance.

“Things cost a lot of money these days, and we were able to honor, as we wanted to, our staff with pay raises that were five percent last year, five percent this year, and four percent in our coming year. 85 pct of our budget is our personnel, so it’s hard to reduce your budget quickly and effortlessly late in the game.”

School board members noted the district has passed deficit budgets before – and expect monthly updates from Gill.