CHAMPAIGN - The Champaign school board received encouraging news for students, teachers and taxpayers on Monday night when it approved a surplus school district budget that includes a proposal to abate some property taxes.

The district's chief financial officer, Gene Logas, said the district had a $2.3 million surplus for the fiscal year that ended on June 30 due to a combination of nearly $2 million in cuts from the budget and money received from the federal government's stimulus package.

The latest budget, approved unanimously on Monday night, calls for $103.89 million in revenues in all operating funds and $103.036 million in expenses, leaving the district with a projected surplus of about $850,000 in operating funds.

Interim Superintendent Robert Malito said the district was able to produce a surplus budget even though the district is owed $2.5 million in state aid. He said the district also has about $21.2 million in reserves.

During the 2008-09 school year, the school board had adopted a plan to make $2 million in cuts in 2010-11 and again in 2011-12 and another $1 million in 2012-13.

With the improved financial position, Logas said, the administration is recommending no further cuts in the 2012-13 budget a year from now.

"I don't think we will be cutting the budget for at least a year, and maybe two years," Logas said.

Logas said the budget also calls for using money from the sales tax for school facilities to abate property taxes on the debt established in 1998 for the construction of Barkstall and Stratton elementary schools.

Logas estimated the abatement will reduce property taxes for property owners in the school district by 14 cents per $100 equalized assessed valuation. He said the owner of a $150,000 home with standard exemptions in the school district can expect his or her property taxes to reduced by about $70 as a result of the abatement.