As Wauconda Community Unit School District 118’s plans to address a multi-million-dollar budgeting crisis begin to solidify, district leaders are looking ahead, saying they’ve created new safeguards within the budgeting process.
However, some parents worry that broader issues remain and wonder why some of the solutions required a $4.2 million hole to enact.
The Board of Education held its business meeting on Thursday, which was intended to include a report from consulting firm Transformational Business Services regarding its audit of the district’s business office. However, the board stated that a family medical emergency had delayed that presentation until the next Committee of the Whole meeting on Jan. 8.
The district’s budget deficit reduction plan will be approved during the Jan. 15 meeting, according to the district’s website.
Wauconda D118 includes Cotton Creek School, Robert Crown School, Wauconda Grade School, Matthews Middle School, Wauconda Middle School and Wauconda High School. The district is currently under the leadership of interim Co-Superintendents Todd Leden and Brian Wegley, with former Superintendent David Wilm having left last year.
According to a district webpage about the budget deficit reduction plan, during an Aug. 7 meeting regarding the close of last year’s budget, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Cameron Willis, who is responsible for D118’s budget, notified the Board of Education that the 2024-25 budget ended with a $2.5 million deficit.
That deficit “propagated” to the 2025-26 budget, which was approved on Sept. 18 with a $4.2 million deficit.
Wauconda Community Unit School District 118 Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Cameron Willis speaks during a Wauconda D118 board meeting. Willis is resigning, effective next year. (Joe States/Pioneer Press)
Poor budget monitoring
The district has given various reasons for the deficit, including lower-than-anticipated state funding and the loss of federal ESSER COVID funds
While the district had been aware that the federal funds would be ending, additional staff had been added and were not reduced “at the same pace,” a representative said. They also listed a less-than-anticipated amount of state funding. The district said it had received about $300,000 less than anticipated for the 2025-26 school year.
Beyond federal and state revenue issues, other contributing factors listed on the website include out-of-district tuition and out-of-district transportation spending.
In a pair of documents answering various community questions, the district also blamed more systemic issues. It said that a budgeting model “utilized for years” included “a problematic practice” — During the budget drafting process, final actuals were not known, and several areas of the budget were built without actual expenditure data or end-of-year expenses.
The district “did not have a reliable budget monitoring tool in place” to detect issues earlier, it said. D118 said it has since made corrections. Now, the district has monthly budget monitoring reports, and will include in-depth reviews of actual expenditures compared to budget predictions during the budgeting process, among other changes.
Scapegoats and classroom impacts
Willis, who has been described as the one in charge of the district’s budget, has resigned effective June 30. But the budgeting process that is at least partially responsible for the current crisis is not new — Willis said it goes back “many years.”
Several attending parents viewed his resignation as a case of scapegoating, including parent Jen Gomez.
“This was not a one-person mistake,” she said.
Several parents indicated concerns about broader leadership issues being the source of the budgeting issues, arguing that it’s a collaborative process.
While Wegley and Leden are the current co-superintendents of D118, up until last year, it was headed by Wilm. According to his Linkedin account, he started leading the district as superintendent of schools in 2021, and was in charge of the district when the budgeting error first began.
Interim Co-Superintendent Leden said he was aware Wilm had been contacted by the district, but said the district had no formal comment at this time in reference to its former head.
Parent and district teacher Samantha Studer, who emphasized her personal connections with the community during public comments, said she was worried about the negative impact of increased class sizes and other consequences students would feel due to the cuts.
“This is a great community,” she said. “I love being a part of it. I just feel like this has gotten a lot of the community on edge, and it’s just much higher stress overall.”
She also expressed frustration that students and staff would feel the impact of the planned cuts, despite the budget error not being their fault.
“By cutting staff and programs, you are negatively affecting not only staff and students, but also the town,” Studer said. “I truly love Wauconda. I really would love for you to consider this when making any decisions moving forward.”
At the end of the meeting, Board of Education member Vickie Laureys announced she would be resigning from the board to focus on her health. After weeks of lengthy meetings, she encouraged residents to take their energy and interview for the soon-to-open position.
“That’s all I can tell you, if you want to make a difference,” Laureys said.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/22/wauconda-d118-budget-mistake/
