Lyons Township school treasurer's cost concerns elementary district

Lyons Township school treasurer's cost concerns basic locale - La Grange-Countryside Elementary School District 105 authorities think the sum it is being charged by the Lyons Township School Treasurer's Office is too high. They want to see a conclusion to on-going case between the workplace and another school region on the grounds that legitimate expenses are adding to the sum it owes.

Administrator Glenn Schlichting said District 105 got a bill of $134,000 for 2015, which is 66 percent higher than the one they paid in 2014.

Lyons Township school treasurer's cost concerns elementary district

Area 105 is one of 13 school locale and instructive cooperatives in La Grange, Western Springs, Burr Ridge and encompassing towns for which the school treasurer's office is in charge of putting more than $280 million in resources and overseeing finance and costs.

Schlichting said his locale knew there would be a knock in expenses to class regions in light of somebody time costs the workplace was bringing about, including acquiring new money related programming. He said, notwithstanding, that the locale's bill is too high and his area needs the treasurer's office to keep costs incline.

"We're communicating worry about whether there are things they could do to control their costs," he said.

The taking an interest locale additionally are partaking in the workplace's expense of continuous suit with Lyons Township High School District 2014, which Schlichting said is adding to their money related weight.

"Is the end in sight?" asked Schlichting. "Is there another approach to determine this without the over the top legitimate charges?"

Susan Birkenmaier, Lyons Township school treasurer, said the workplace has been attempting to convey a conclusion to the claim it documented against District 204 in October 2013 for $4.4 million, incorporating $2.6 million in back expenses for money related administrations.

The claim came to fruition the same time as strife in the school treasurer's office after Robert Healy, 56, of LaGrange Highlands, the previous treasurer, confessed in 2015 to taking more than $100,000 in school stores amid his 24 years at work. Healy had been accused in August 2013 of taking more than $1.5 million. He is serving a nine-year sentence at the Taylorville Correctional Center.

LTHS authorities fight an assention was come to in 1999 in open session with the workplace empowering the secondary school to process its own finance and records receivable and payable, and get a credit from the treasurer's office to abstain from paying twice for the same capacity. Both the secondary school and treasurer's office sheets affirmed working systems in view of the assention consistently since 2015, said LTHS Superintendent Timothy Kilrea.

Birkenmaier said for the current week that her office trusts the cash is owed, and has been attempting to end the case. It made a settlement request in 2015 and gave a rundown of middle people in 2016, she said.

"There's been no reaction from them by any stretch of the imagination," Birkenmaier said.

Michael Dickman, one of three board individuals from the school treasurer's office, said he is disappointed, as well.

"School District 204 keeps on declining to pay what they owe. This falls at their feet," he said.

"The treasurer's office has their own position on where things are and it isn't steady with our position," reacted Kilrea, who brought up that the claim was started by the treasurer's office.

"We're still in the courts and there are status hearings," Kilrea said. "That would be a lot of cash to any settlement and would need to be talked about with the lawyer."

He noticed that his area has spent "well over $100,000" on the claim.

Birkenmaier did not promptly give the sum her office has spent on the claim.

Concerning other one-time costs, Birkenmaier said the workplace expected to buy new monetary programming at an expense of $340,000 to supplant the past programming that dated from the 1980s. She said District 105, and a couple of different areas, additionally obtained their own product. Locale 105's expense $76,000, she said.

Despite the fact that District 105 made its own product buy, the obligation regarding adjusting the books has a place with the treasurer's office.

"The school code obliges us to keep up a definitive arrangement of books," she said.

Schlichting said the treasurer's office needs to comprehend that his area works on a tight spending plan which builds fixing to the Consumer Price Index, which is just around 1 percent a year.

"Our methods are decreased," he said. "They are really level. What are they doing as such we don't get these enormous hits?"

Birkenmaier said the greater part of the areas knew that one-time uses would happen.

"This wasn't an astonishment to anybody," she said.

She said the normal increment in expense over all taking an interest school locale was around 55 percent.

Birkenmaier said her office has recuperated in regards to $1.04 million from Healy in a common body of evidence against him.

"We'll keep on recovering what we would," she be able to said.

Amannion@tribpub.com
Twitter triblocalam