Tax Hike Approved, Audit Discussed at LFHS Board Meeting

The Lake Forest District 115 School Board met Tuesday night for their monthly meeting. The packed agenda included approving the tax levy for the 2013-14 school year, a re-cap of the school's recent audit by an outside firm and an assessment of how students do on various tests - including the ACT and Advance Placement (AP) tests.

Here's a recap on the three dominating issues of the evening. Patch will be bringing you more in-depth articles on the issues throughout the week.

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Tax Levy: The Board approved the proposed tax levy for the 2013-14 school year, which is at an increase of around 5 percent. Because it's above 5%, the board was required to hold a "Truth in Taxation Hearing" about the issue, though no citizens spoke against it. The Board noted that the 5 percent increase is due to the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District, which is expiring this year, and the aggregate increase on existing properties is 3%. 

Audit: Andrew Mace, from the firm Miller Cooper, spoke about the firm's audit of the school's finances, which he reported were in a great state. He described the school as having a "clean audit," which is very unsual for high schools. He also pointed out that the firm found all of the controls to be in place, with the school operating with a small surplus.

School Assessment: The Annual Assessment Report was presented to the board, bearing great news about LFHS' test scores. The average ACT score for the class of 2012 was 26.9 (out of 36), placing LFHS among the top in the state. The assessment also reported that 94% of the AP tests taken at the school in 2012 received a passing score of 3 or higher (with a maximum available score of 5).