Bethalto School District Presents Amended Budget For Fiscal Year 2025

BETHALTO - With just a few days left in Fiscal Year 2025, the Bethalto Community Unit School District #8 has amended their 2024–2025 budget.

During the Board of Education’s regular meeting on June 26, 2025, Director of Business Operations Chris Schomber presented an Amended Budget Hearing to the Board. He explained that no money was moved or added to the budget, but cash was “just moved up and down on the lines” to balance the budget.

“This doesn’t happen very often to do an amended budget, but this year, it was necessary,” Schomber said. “In the original budget, not everything was accounted for, and there were some questions.”

In FY25, the district used Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) dollars to add psychologists, social workers, school counselors, nurses and interventionists. They also updated facilities at Parkside Primary School as part of a five-year facilities plan. Money from the Operating Budget went to technology updates for Civic Memorial students and staff. They also continued to add career pathways at CM and update the Bethalto Sports Complex.

All school districts are experiencing a loss of COVID-related revenue. ESSER funds that were given to districts as part of COVID-19 relief are no longer available. Schomber noted that the loss of these funds means the district must be “more purposeful” in finding new revenue sources.

The district collects $13,255 in revenue per student. This puts Bethalto in the bottom half of districts in Madison County, as many districts, like East Alton-Wood River, Granite City, and Roxana collect more revenue per pupil.

Schomber credited the industries in these districts for their increased revenue. Bethalto does not have assets like Granite City Steel or Wood River Refinery. These industries generate high revenue for those districts.

Per student, Bethalto spends $12,963 every year. Once again, the district is in the bottom half of comparable school districts.

“We do more with less,” Schomber explained. “Almost all of the revenue we collect is going directly to our students and their needs. We don’t have a lot of fluff. We have what our kids need…We are able to provide more services to our students with less expenses.”

Bethalto’s biggest expenditures are their teachers’ salaries. To date in FY25, Bethalto has spent $13,142,077 on teachers’ and instructional aides’ salaries. Schomber noted the value of spending this money on staff members.

“Our people are our biggest resource,” he said. “Investing in our people is what we’re doing.”

As part of the amended budget, the district had to adjust their Executive Costs to 5%. The original budget had Executive Costs at -3%, which is too low; Schomber said this issue was probably caused by not having a full-time business manager and lower costs compared to the previous year’s expenses.

The amended budget reflects a one-year increase in federal funding for Title I, II and IV. Schomber also adjusted expenses from the Health, Life and Safety Fund because the expended amount grew by nearly $1.2 million in the past year.

Superintendent Dr. Jill Griffin explained that this increase came from the Parkside construction. The Parkside project was bid several years ago, and construction costs have risen since then. The amended budget reflects this.

Schomber added that Bethalto’s tax rate, which is currently at 4.59%, is the lowest it’s been in ten years. Looking forward, he wants to “look for opportunities to generate additional revenue for the school district without raising the tax rate.”

“We’re doing this with two days left in the fiscal year,” he added. “I cannot wait to close the books on FY25.”

FY25 ends on June 30, 2025. FY26 begins on July 1.

Print Version