GOV, belt tightening required in District 88 [D88]

District 88 serves elementary school students mostly from Bellwood and Stone Park.

Melrose Park Herald (Chris LaFortune):

Bellwood School District 88 tentatively plans to spend about $28.7 million next school year, a decrease of nearly 12 percent from the year before....

A public hearing on the tentative budget is scheduled for 7 p.m. Sept. 11 at the district's administrative center, 640 Eastern Ave. in Bellwood. Final approval is planned at the same meeting following the hearing.

The tentative budget is on public display at the Bellwood Public Library and the Melrose Park Public Library, until Sept. 6.

District 88 is facing some major problems.

McKinley School is unhealthy and should be replaced.

Bellwood has passed three TIF districts. In the short-term the money will be used to build three new schools. However, District 88 will be leasing these schools back from the village. And the TIF districts will increasingly cut into District 88 revenue over the next 23 years. (This will shift the tax burden to Stone Park probably.)

And there's this current financial pickle.