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Saturday, October 5, 2013
PES audit Revenue down; expenses up By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — Princeton Elementary School District continues to face challenging financial times. At Monday’s meeting, the PES Board heard from auditor Joel Hopkins who reviewed the district’s Fiscal Year 2013 audit, saying revenue was down and expenses were up for the year. The audit shows the district received $10,104,546 in total revenue for FY ‘13 which was about $250,000 less than received the prior year. Total operating expenditures for FY ‘13 were $11,136,486, which were up about $345,000 from the prior year. Looking at some specific line items, Hopkins said fees, lunches and texts were down by $85,000 from the prior year, due primarily to transportation fees collected from other districts. State aid and grants were down about $160,000 from the prior year, which represented a decrease in transportation and Early Childhood funding. However, the decreases were offset by a $50,000 maintenance grant and an increase of $60,000 in general state aid. Federal aid was up $70,000 from the prior year. Summarizing, Hopkins said FY ‘13 ended with a net loss of $1,031,940 for the year. However, due to the $3 million issued in bonds, PES ended its fiscal year in a final excess of approximately $1.2 million, Hopkins said. According to Illinois State Board of Education calculations, PES has been placed on the financial warning profile designation, as it was last year, Hopkins said. Looking at other areas covered in the audit, Hopkins said the state of Illinois did better this past year in catching up on its back payments to the district. As of June 30, the state owed the district $256,852, compared to the $633,000 owed the district on June 30, 2012.
Federal shutdown affects locals By Donna Barker dbarker@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — The federal government shutdown has closed a Princeton office building, while the local health department is continuing business as usual. On Thursday, Justina Boggio, executive director of the Bureau County Farm Service Agency, confirmed all 21 employees in Bureau County’s USDA office building,
See Shutdown Page 4
St. Bede Academy cheerleaders lead a cheer during a Homecoming parade and other Homecoming activities Wednesday at the Academy. The St. Bede Bruins take on Rockridge at 2 p.m. today, Saturday, at the Academy for their Homecoming performance.
Wrong signs in the right of way State not removing church signs at random
Year 167 No. 120
The removal of church directional signs from Route 26 in Princeton during the summer is not part of a targeted effort to take church signs out of the public view, according to Deputy Director of Highways, Region 2, Paul
Friday Night Lights See Page 11
hosted a conference call Monday afternoon for all employees to review office policy and procedure in the event of a government shutdown. Staff were given a maximum of four hours on Tuesday morning to secure the building and return home, which they did, Boggio said. If the office was open, this would be the time of year when her staff would be
Cheering for a Homecoming win!
By Andrew Fisher
98213 00012 1 7 © Bureau County Republican
located on Backbone Road in Princeton, are on furlough, or unpaid leave, due to the federal government shutdown that went into place on Tuesday. In addition to the Farm Service Agency office, the Bureau County USDA building houses the offices of Rural Development, Natural Resources Conservation Services and Bureau County Soil and Water Conservation District. Boggio said the Illinois State FSA Office
BCR photo/Becky Kramer
See Audit Page 3 One Section - 24 Pages
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Loete, who is an engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation. “There wasn’t any particular effort to go across districtwide and look for signs,” Loete said. “The signs were removed because they were found to be placed inside the state road right of way,” Loete added. “Signs or features within the right of way have
to have authorization from the department. If we allowed anybody to place miscellaneous signs, we would lose control quickly. There are certain guidelines that have to be followed.” Concern about the removal of church directional signs was first raised publicly by the Rev. Fr. Kyrill Esposito OSB of St. Jude’s Anglican Church in Princeton,
See Signs Page 4
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