* Wait. They all worked together to solve a school district funding problem? Odd…

Last year, Round Lake Area Schools District 116 was one of two districts facing public backlash after discovering multi-million-dollar budget deficits.

Now D116 says it has plugged the $11 million hole and implemented new processes to prevent it from happening again, although questions remain about the district’s former chief financial officer, who was blamed for the budgeting error.

As Superintendent Donn Mendoza explained it last year, the initial error occurred during the previous year’s budgeting process, with two areas — staff salaries and special education costs — being underbudgeted. He had emphasized that “money is not missing; fraud has not occurred,” but rather that the district had been using money from its savings account to operate.

The “ripple effects” of the error on the 2025-26 and 2026-27 fiscal years totaled $10.9 million. Additionally, the district had learned its state funding was slashed in half, the district said at the time.

To help fill the hole, the Education Association of Round Lake, the district’s teachers’ union, overwhelmingly voted to cut salary increases. Salary increases for administrators were also reduced, and the superintendent took a voluntary reduction in his salary for the following school year.

This summer, D116 adopted an amended 2026 budget and approved its 2027 budget. The new school year came with some positive news for teachers who gave up salary increases.

Those included union staff agreeing to stunted salary increases — about 3% lower than the increases originally bargained for two consecutive years. However, since then, as the district’s financial position improved, they’ve been able to provide employees with the additional 3% from the 2026-27 school year, Bennett said.

Imagine that.