Oak Park Elementary District 97 teachers showed up to work at one of the highest rates in Illinois during the 2024-25 school year, posting a 99.2% regular-attendance rate.

The statewide average was 66%, according to Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) data compiled by West Cook News. That puts District 97 (D97) more than 33 percentage points above the norm. Only 18 Illinois districts recorded a perfect 100% rate, and D97 ranked among the top 30 statewide based on the published data table.

The gap is striking.

The strong attendance figure arrives during a fiscal year in which D97 is running a projected overall budget deficit of $3,161,000. The shortfall stems from $5 million in capital improvements. Projects include new roofs at Percy Julian and Gwendolyn Brooks middle schools, partial roof replacements at Beye and Irving schools, life-safety upgrades at nine campuses, a new elevator at Brooks and a new gym floor at Mann School. The district still projects an operating surplus of $1,839,000, according to the tentative budget presented at the Aug. 11 school board meeting.

Financial advisor Robert Grossi told the board at that meeting that revenues are likely to grow only 2% to 2.5% long term. "It's going to be hard to maintain balanced budgets without making adjustments to the expense side," Grossi said, as reported by the Wednesday Journal on Aug. 20.

Salaries make up 64.1% of D97 expenditures. Total salary costs are projected to rise 3.1% this fiscal year, while employee-benefit costs, driven largely by health insurance, are expected to jump 10.3%.

The district projects ending the fiscal year with roughly $51.7 million in cash reserves, equal to 138 days of operating expenses. Board policy calls for keeping reserves between 90 and 180 days.

Statewide, the teacher workforce grew to a record 137,899 full-time equivalents in 2024-25, up 687 from the prior year. Unfilled teaching positions fell 24% to 2,943 as of Oct. 1, 2025, dropping the vacancy rate to 2.1%, according to ISBE.

The D97 school board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the budget and vote on its adoption at its Tuesday, Sept. 22 meeting.