SSC board passes tentative 2027 budget

On July 9, South Suburban College board met to approve a litany of things. One being to approve the tentative operating and non-operating budgets for fiscal year 2027. 

Treasurer Thomas Agnew presented the tentative budget and highlighted a projected surplus of $89,253. When broken down, the operating budget shows a surplus of $33,205. The non-operating budget predicts a surplus of $56,047. 

“What we anticipate with this coming year’s budget, we’re able to cover the increased health insurance costs, we were able to hire board-approved new positions. We were able to support the faculty both full-time and adjunct with salary increases,” said Agnew. 

“We’re continuing to work with our support staff as we’re currently in negotiations with them, and we were able to invest in our employees with board-approved salary increases and flex increases, and we’ve not compromised the service that we’re providing to our school district.”

With the tentative budget, this will be the seventh consecutive year the South Suburban board has had a balanced budget.

Board Chairman Terry Wells raised concerns about the inconsistency of the equalization grants. Equalization grants are state-funded allocations designed to ensure districts have equal access to funding needed to provide high-quality educational programs.

“I think two years ago we saw a huge reduction in our equalization, last year it was up, this year it is down again,” said Chairman Wells. 

Wells mentioned finding people to help with these grants, such as Illinois State Senator Napoleon Harris (D-15) and Illinois State Representative Will Davis (D-30). 

Other sources of revenue for the college include the facilities rentals, sustainability efforts, and its new recycling center. “We’re booking the last round of those numbers, but we are looking at about a million,” said Agnew.

Disagreement over honorary trustee

During the meeting, the board brought up a recommendation to establish the position of Trustee Emeritus, an honorary non-voting position reserved for someone who can offer advice to the board. Trustee Janet Rogers moved to make a recommendation for Anthony DeFilippo, who served from 1989 to 2025. The school’s pharmacy technician laboratory is named in his honor.

Trustee Daly moved to table for further discussion in closed session. One of the board’s attorneys advised the board that further discussion on the topic must be done in open session. 

Tensions rose between trustees Rogers, Tyhani Hill and Kevin L. Daly over the DeFilipino’s candidacy, with Hill and Rogers taking gripe that the board had little to no conversation about any of the original four candidates. 

“One, he didn’t treat people nice. So you know, I just think it’s disheartening that you would nominate Tony and didn’t ask anybody anything,” Hill added.

However, Rogers stated that some of the candidates were not interested and recommended DeFilippo. “I nominated Tony because these were listed here…they’re not interested, and they recommended Tony DeFilippo. So I’m just assuming that there was some discussion [amongst themselves],” said Rogers.

Daly mentioned the last time the board discussed this topic was the second reading of policy for a potential position and what the position would look like. “So it sounds to me like the opinions of members of the public carry more weight than the opinion of board members,” he added.

Hill previously served as the college’s treasurer, before winning her election bid in 2025. An SSC graduate, her bid was endorsed by the Cook County College Teachers Union, Local 1600, representing its faculty. “I know as a woman and as a Black woman, I felt that Tony did not treat me correctly…,” Hill lamented. “I felt that most of the time it was a disrespect of my position. I felt that he did not respect me as the treasurer of this college.”

The board eventually settled on rescinding the motion to go into closed session about this topic.

Board approves contract with 3D’s Cafe

The board approved a contract with 3D’s Cafe, a Black-owned family business, for the provisions of cafeteria services at the main campus in South Holland.

Appointments

Ariana Reed was appointed as a full-time microcomputer labs coordinator in the Academic Computing Department, effective July 15. Kendall Browning was appointed a full-time cosmetology career training instructor at the Cosmetology College, effective August 10.