Um, and then Prairie Point, we have Deer Path Trails that's coming in. That's a new little subdivision that's coming in that area. There's a lot of construction. and we're not sure if that's going to be built up at the beginning of the fall. And so that is an added subdivision that we're putting on there as well as South Berry. Piper Glenn on the south end, the north end of Piper Glenn is pretty much complete, but there's a patch on the south end that's still not complete and there's a lot of construction going in that area. So that's another area that we're classifying as hazardous. Again, when it comes to Wolf, um the Wheatlands, Thompson, and Trober, all of those are the ones that we previously approved last year, and there those are just for reertification. Um so, next steps, we're looking to get board approval on April 13th.
Um if board approved those locations, then I submit that to the state the next day, and then we look to get that back. And then May 11th, we'll be communicating out to families any um any families that was affected by it, the reductions, um the area that we're reducing and then the areas that we're adding, we'll be communicating that to those families then. And then in June, um July, I don't think because there's many areas, we're we have our engineers that's agreeing to do town halls with us to talk about the changes and how families are impacted and the reason for those decisions. um they've agreed to June and July if it's needed. We we do have some dates that we're going to look at for June, but if July is needed, that's an option that they have available as well for us. Um and then August 7th, we'll provide those routes with to our families with um all of the changes.
>> I think that's it. >> Anybody? um attached to that you should see all of the areas that is considered hazardous on this war report. So I'm going to for the sake of time and how late it is I'm not going to go through all of those but they are attached because this is what we have to submit to the state as well to get those approved. >> I have a question about Lincoln Prairie Dell web. Um, am I correct in assuming that Lincoln Prairie is done and Del Webb is what's under construction? >> Del Webb is what's under >> and because Del Webb is the 55 and older, they're less likely to have students coming from that area. >> Well, we think that, but not. >> Right. Right. >> I I I guess what I'm asking is, are we going to take Lincoln Prairie out and just make it the Dell web part?
>> It's just the Dell Web part. Okay. So, >> was taken out last year. >> It says Lincoln Prairie on here. So, maybe we should take them out because they have the pedestrian bridge, >> correct? >> Okay. >> I just have one comment. I should stop talking. Um, I absolutely appreciate that you guys Oh, that we are removing uh the Fifth Street in Blue Cross Blue Cross sign. Gosh, I can't tell you how many times I bypassed that stop sign just because you're it it's not familiar, right? So, you're just typically driving. So, I have definitely bypassed that a multitude of times. So, I appreciate the removal of it. So, I think that's definitely >> Well, I Right. >> What does removing it mean? >> It's no longer hazardous. >> Correct. >> So, that means >> Oh, that's going to stay there. students because right now it's hazardous because there was not a four-way stop there, but since the four-way stop is there, it's no longer considered hazardous by the state of Illinois.
>> So students can cross. >> So the stop sign is going to stay there. >> The stop sign is going to stay there. >> Stop. >> Negative. Yeah, you need to stop Benediction. >> I I didn't want you to make sure that was clear. >> So I've thought she was saying the opposite. So I'm glad you clarified that. Thank you. >> Are there any I have one, but you might not have an answer. But does anybody else have >> I just can't believe it was a full year ago that we Was it a full year ago that we >> It was >> Yeah, seems like a full year. >> Um I How many kids are we busing because of the crossing Fifth Street at ELC? because that seems >> it's about 116 with um Plank as well as Church Hill. >> It seems like they could go to the Fifth Street if we I don't know.
I'm like kind of >> It's the Ogden Falls area that we're crossing across um to go to Plank and Church Hill. >> Okay. I'm not picturing that fifth. Yeah, I know there's a picture later on. Yeah. You want me to go to the picture? There.
>> That's probably why I didn't have any questions last time. I probably looked at the picture. >> Sorry. >> Yeah. >> I don't think there is because it's not. >> That's why it's not on there because it's not has no >> problem. Like I look, >> but that's what I assume. >> Yes. >> I'll I'll find it myself. Yeah.
If I have any questions, I'll I'll submit. >> So, the odd that fall area is less than a mile and a half to plank and Church Hill. Last year, we considered it hazardous because that four-way stop was not there. And by the state code, there was enough points to consider it hazardous. But now that the four-way stop is there, Ogden Falls, there's a little portion that's still over a mile and a half that we'll have to bust. They will have to >> Well, I I was actually asking about the childhood. I was asking about the ELC entrance. Um, the fact that that's hazardous. It doesn't even seem like it needs to be used. >> Well, you'll be surprised how many people use it. So, we just want to make sure that we're all safe and that's not >> Well, I and I just wanted I was wondering how many people we bust because we called that hazardous.
>> We don't. >> Okay. Okay. >> No. No. >> We give them a route that they can use. >> Correct. >> That is not hazardous. >> Safe walk route. >> Yeah. Cuz I was like, yeah. It's like literally a quarter of a block away. So any Okay. All right. Appreciate it. Anybody else? >> All right. >> Thank you. Go home. Get some sleep. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now we're moving to 10.3 the fiscal year 2026 2027 budget calendar and designate. >> Financial info. Financial >> financial information. Oh, I 10.3 financial information. >> Thank you. >> So, this is actually a propo since we had folks here today who were talking about the fact that um we had to make some reduction uh in our in our funding. And I can't overstate the fact that it's not just us in um in Oswiggo, it's really all over Illinois.
is because of the way education is funded in Illinois. There's an overdependent on property taxes and also because of the makeup of our property taxes which is mostly residential. 80% of the of the uh of our properties residential and the the fact that um the amount of increase is actually limited by CPI or 5% whichever one is lower. I know folks talk about the fact that we have a high property tax rate relative to others. It's true but those rates are actually coming down. they've come down over the years. And the real reason why we have those rates are those bonds that were issue to build 12 schools in the early 2000 when were the fastest growing county in the uh in the country. So the the cost of of issuing those bonds, we make a payment close to 37 million every year just to pay back the the cost of the bonds.
So I just want to put that out there. And uh a lot of time it gets conflated. People think that high rate is driven by operational levy, but it's really the cost of paying back $250 million in bond insurance from back in 2006 is what is making uh tax rate higher. But uh it's is the the rate has been going down if you look at it. So what I wanted to for us to talk about is kind of like where we are today. This is I want to start out by saying this is a snapshot in time. The numbers is a projection of a uh snapshot but the number is going to change as more information becomes available. I just want to make that clear. is not static because we continue to get information every day about things such as the the cost of um health care.
We're still negotiating with our healthcare provider to see how much that will be the increase from this year to to next year once we finalize the number the increase it could go up it could go down and the other variables too that that we have to keep in mind. So, it's a static point in time and it will invariably change. And I just want folks to realize if it changes the reasons why it changes. And then the other area we're going to focus on is budget allocation and then operational expenses, days of cash on hand and projections versus forecast. So, this is where we are for the 2026 budget. We have a total revenue, projected revenue based on the budget of 281.7 and project expenses of 279.2. We estimating that at the end of the fiscal year in June, we should have a surplus of 2.5.
Those are all estimates and projections. And we if we have that, then we have 70 days cash on hand. Now I want to talk about revenue growth. Uh revenue is really driven by three main sources for us. Property tax which I talked about and that makes up about 48%. And then another big component of our revenue is EBF from the state and then some mandated categorical funds. Then we have federal revenue. Then the local the other local revenue are fees that we collect from our students and food that we sell to our kids. So our revenue uh annually it's fixed at about 1.6%. Right? and EBF for this year is 106.5 which is 8 million less than what we had projected when we developed the 26 budget. The budget had been developed and it actually was on display to be approved by the board when we found out what the final EBF number was.
That number came in $8 million less than what we projected. And the reason being that we went from tier one to tier two and being tier one for a couple of years actually helped us because we've had a challenging financial position. So having that extra revenue from EBF helped us to start building a a cash cushion and then having that yanked and then being moved to tier two just made things a little challenging for us. So which is part of what we'll be dealing with now. So property taxes we looking at 3% growth on that and other revenue sources essentially is is capp. But the flip side of that when we look at the expenses we're looking at an average salary increase of 3%. Now keep in mind we're in negotiation with OTAA which is what I'm pointing out. This is a snapshot time. Okay.
And then the benefit increase, we projected 9%. Those numbers have not been finalized. There's a good chance that can be high when we have uh the uh the final agreement with our co-op health co-op. So if you look at uh a re a revenue and compared to an expense that's what we talk about structural debt where continuously expenses outpaces revenue than ongoing basis and a district that has a healthy fund balance can afford to carry that for three, four, five years. But we don't have that luxury. We have a very low fund balance which is why in order for us to achieve balance we have to make sure that the expenses balances to revenue. So since there's a a disparity here we have to make reduction. So what I just uh talked about earlier, this is the makeup of our revenue and this is what the projection looks like in expenses look like.
And as it relates to expenses, 70% of that is is salary. 14% additional to that is benefit. So if you need to reduce revenue or if you need to reduce the budget, really the only place where you can get significant reduction is people because that's really where the bulk of the expenses are tied into. Now if you look at purchase services over the last three years we've actually reduced that substantially and if you look at supply makes up 9%. So even if you cut purchase services by 50%. You wouldn't get the significant reduction that you need in order to be to be able to address the uh the structural imbalance brought on by the funding of of of the district. Raphael, where is um transportation in those numbers? >> It's purchase services. Purchase >> services. >> Part of it. Let me let me So it all depends so I can break it down.
>> Part of it is in salary for our bus drivers. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Part of it is in purchase services with a third party provider such as Durham and Septron. >> Okay. >> and part of it also is also in fuel as well as a lease payment. So those so it it it courses into different places. >> So this is just uh a diagram to show where the expansions. All right. So if you look at the expenditure, the expenditure invariably are increasing at a higher rate of revenue. So each year, so this shows what will happen if we don't mod modulate it if you will. If we don't go in and do a reduction, the expenses will be growing at a faster rate than the revenue. So each year we have to make adjustment to make sure that the expenses is equal to the revenue so we don't have an ongoing deficit.
Since we don't have a really healthy fund balance, we cannot afford to keep doing that. So this is what it looks like growing. This is as of today, snapshot as of today. If we did absolutely nothing, we allow revenue to come in the way it's projected and we allow expenses to grow at the rate that's projected to grow without any reduction. fiscal year 27 next year we're looking at close to $8 million in defense and by 28 if we did nothing that more than double and in 29 it gets bigger still. So by the time we get to 31 we'll be looking at a deficit of close to 42. We know this is not acceptable. We cannot do this which is why we need to do something which is why we are proposing some reduction in 27. If we can reduce that reduction to at least $8 million then we have a good chance of having a balanced budget and then the deficit in the out years then goes down.
So we will have to keep making reductions unless we have additional revenue or the state decides to fund us uh different. So this is what it looks like if you look at revenue against uh expenditure. So which is it's a table of what I just showed earlier which if you look at it by 2031 we have 41 over 41 bill but we know this is not going to happen. We cannot afford to have this up. We will have to make reduction that is commensurate with what we know our revenues are. So this is just another way of showing that what we saw today. So I think this is also what I can show the gain what the impact on the fund balances if we did not make any changes. So we starting out at the end of this year we expecting 70 days of cash on hand.
If we did nothing and we allowed that deficit to grow by $8 million, then the days of cash and hand then dwindles and it dwindles on. So that the only time we actually we have seven days which what you want to do you want to have at least nine months of cash in you know a well-run school district need nine month cashing. So if you look at it, we have to continue to make reduction for expenses in line with our revenue or we have significant significant financial and this is another way of showing the fund balance. You look at the peak and then it start going down precipitously if we don't do something about it. And so for um you know our community member, our stakeholders who complain about the need to do reductions, those reductions are actually necessary. They're not a choice. Some of our neighboring school district have a high fund so they can afford to carry deficit.