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The D58 school board will hold a public hearing tonight on the limitation of administrative costs, as required by state law. Following the hearing, the board is expected to approve the district’s application for waiver of the limitation, which holds school districts to a five percent annual increase in certain administrative costs.

The meeting is schedule for 7 p.m. at Longfellow Center.

The move is necessary because the district’s administrative costs — including salaries, benefits and travel expenses for the superintendent, the business manager and other business personnel, and the assistant superintendent for personnel — increased by nine percent from FY09 to FY 10, or from $1,302,207 to $1,413,920.

The reason for the increase is the appointment of Supt. Paul Zaander in January 2009  and Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Staff Development JayneYudzentis in March 2009, as well as the move to full-time from part-time employment by Controller Jim Popernik.

Zaander was the interim superintendent following Dale Martin’s departure from the district in 2008, while former Assistant Superintendent Larry Bending was contracted to serve in his previous position. Bending served 112 days of his 120-day contract. Those personnel changes resulted in a three percent reduction in administrative costs from FY 2008 to FY 2009, Popernik said.

In addition to the public hearing, the district was required to send a notice of the waiver application to its union leadership and also to local legislators.

The Illinois State Board of Education will rule on the district’s waiver request. The relatively late application — FY 10 ends June 30 — is due to the district’s move to a new auditor. Audits are typically completed in November or December, but in this case there were delays related to the district’s status as a new client, Popernik said.

Even so, the ISBE isn’t expected to act on the request immediately, he said. “It’s a formality.”

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