Schools

School Leaders Sound Off on Quinn's District Consolidation Plan

During his budget report last month, Gov. Pat Quinn announced a proposal to consolidate the number of school districts in the state.

Area school officials are keeping a watchful eye on Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposal to consolidate the number of school districts in the state from the existing 868 to around 300 in an effort to save money.

Quinn maintains consolidating the districts will help eliminate the number of administrators, maximize efficiency for districts and possibly save the state $100 million annually, according to the Associated Press.

The proposal would likely affect smaller school districts, especially in areas where several elementary school districts feed into one high school district.

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District 300 Communication Supervisor Allison Strupeck said a suggested the consolidation would not likely impact larger districts like Community Unit School District 300, which already serves 20,000 students.

“We are excited to see the discussion about making the school system more efficient,” Strupeck said. “When we met with state legislators (on Feb. 14), the indication was that this would not affect a district of our size.”

Smaller Districts Could Be Consolidation

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One smaller district that could be targeted by the proposal is Prairie Grove Consolidated School District 46.

Located on the eastern side of Crystal Lake, District 46 has two elementary school buildings serving about 1,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. From there, the students move into Community High School District 155.

“As a school superintendent, I’m always interested in anything that would help improve education,” said Lynette Zimmer, superintendent of District 46 in Crystal Lake. “I think what Gov. Quinn is proposing, however, is really a school board and community decision. I don’t know where he’s going to save $100 million.”

Zimmer said consolidating school districts is not as simple as saying, “Let’s join forces.” Each district has its own teachers’ contracts, salary schedules and numerous contracts such as lunch program servers.

“It’s very complex,” Zimmer said. “Which salary schedule would you use? Which lunch program? That would all have to be negotiated. It would take a long time to work all those issues through.”

Consolidation: Drawing New District Lines

Quinn is expected to appoint a commission to review where possible consolidations would be beneficial, and draw new district lines.

Matt Vanover, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Education, said the State Board supports the concept of school district consolidation and has offered incentives to districts willing to join together. Incentive payments include additional general state aid, compensation for teachers’ salary differences, deficit fund balance, and $4,000 per full-time certified staff member.

“Initially, (consolidating) may cost money, but eventually it will save money in the long run,” Vanover said. “There are cases, in rural areas and the suburbs, where you may have several smaller elementary districts each with their own superintendents. Combining four into three districts saves three superintendent salaries.”

In 1984, Illinois had 1,008 school districts. Some districts have since consolidated, de-activated or merged, bringing the total districts to 868, the third largest number in the country, Vanover said.

“Only Texas and California have more school districts,” Vanover said. “A state like Florida only has 100 districts.”

Under past consolidations, teachers kept the tenure earned at their original district when joining with a new district.

Long-term debt acquired by the school districts typically remains within the boundaries that assumed the debt; however, consolidation petitions can provide  the entire territory of the newly formed district assumes the debt of the previously existing districts, according to ISBE. 


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