Finances

Awards Received

District 54 has received the Association of School Business Officials International’s (ASBO) Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting Award for excellence in the preparation and issuance of its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the last 26 years.

District 54 has received a Meritorious Budget Award from the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO) International for the last 11 years. The Meritorious Budget Award is conferred only to school systems that have met or exceeded the Meritorious Budget Award Program criteria related to developing, analyzing and presenting a budget.

Taxes and Fees

Property taxes represent about 74 percent of District 54′s total revenues. Tax caps have been in place since 1991 that limit property tax growth to the increase of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 5 percent, whichever is less. The CPI for 2011 was 1.5 percent. Property tax caps are also affected by new construction, which have averaged less than 1 percent in recent years in District 54 (in 2010 new construction accounted for 0.28 percent). In the 2011-12 District 54 budget state aid accounts for 20 percent and federal aid 3 percent of overall revenues. School districts receive no sales taxes.

Year	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Tax Rate	3.002	3.104	2.582	2.559	2.592

The remainder of the revenues are from interest and local fees.

Fee/Year	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
Student Milk Fee	10 cents	10 cents	10 cents	20 cents	20 cents	20 cents
Consumable Materials Fee	$50	$50	$50	$50	$50	$50
Parent-paid transportation fee for one child	$475	$475	$475	$475	$475	$475
Open enrollment transportation fee for one child	$50	$75	$100	$150	$200	$250
Facility rental	These rates vary based on the time of the rental and the room requested. Please see the Facilty Rental page for details.