Post by macrockett on Apr 10, 2010 19:20:07 GMT -6
www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-naperville-two-districts-20100410,0,5385535.story
chicagotribune.com
State budget cuts singe one Naperville school district, scorch another
Poorer school districts, more reliant on state funds, have most to lose
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter
April 11, 2010
Two years ago, Indian Prairie School District 204 was building state-of-the art schools and athletic facilities. For years, new homes regularly had been added to the tax rolls, which kept dollars rolling in. Administrators in the district covering south and west Naperville decided to expand kindergarten to a full school day.
In the older neighborhoods to the north and east, Naperville School District 203 was enlarging its older schools rather than building new ones. Although the district spent more per pupil than its southern neighbors, kindergarten remained a half-day program, which didn't sit well with some parents.
But in recent weeks, District 204 approved plans to cut 145 teachers and $21.4 million out of next year's budget, while its neighbors in District 203 made small budget adjustments that left the educational program largely intact.
Many parents are drawn to Naperville by the city's high-performing schools. The city — Illinois' fifth-largest — consistently ranks as one of the nation's best places to live.
Yet the school districts are a suburban "Tale of Two Cities" under Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed budget cuts. The different results of the funding shortfall offer a glimpse into the quirks in state funding that are causing some schools to lay off educators by the dozens while others are getting by with more minor belt-tightening.
First of all, the state funds some districts at higher rates than others. If a district's local resources are less than 93 percent of what the state determines as sufficient funding levels, a district is considered a "foundation level" district and is eligible for more state money.
Naperville's District 204 has more farm fields and vacant land than the more established parts of the city, so therefore less property wealth than District 203. The southern district also crosses into parts of Bolingbrook, Plainfield and Aurora, communities with lower property values than Naperville. That's one reason why under the state's calculation, District 204 was among the more needy school districts in DuPage County.
District 204 counted on the state for 16 percent of its budget, while District 203 relied on state funds for only 9 percent of its budget. With a greater dependence on funding, it's the foundation level schools — those the state has deemed the neediest — that have the most to lose if Quinn's proposed cuts to education funding take place.
District 204 is forecasting a 39 percent drop in state funds and a loss of more than $18 million this year.
"In this economy, all school districts are suffering," said Mohsin Dada, past president of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials. "But school districts with a greater reliance on state funding, if the state makes drastic reductions, they are going to have a very significant challenge."
But state funding is only part of the problem. Parent Michael Crockett blames the district for depending too heavily on the state.
"They should have seen it coming," Crockett said. "Our state is dysfunctional, and everyone knows that. We're relying on the state, and then we're adding full-day kindergarten and that's relying on them some more. It's just not responsible."
But District 204 school board president Curt Bradshaw wonders how a district can rely less on the state.
"It's flawed thinking," he said. "We could decide today to no longer be dependent on the state, but that would mean reducing our staff by 16 percent. It would not make sense for us to go it alone."
Instead, the district took advantage of its higher funding for such programs as full-day kindergarten. When they started the program two years ago, district officials were going to be getting $6 million more in state aid to fund the program, which they felt would enrich the area academically. The district would have to hire 43 new teachers, but would have $2 million left over after paying their salaries.
District 203, which would have received less state money, felt the full-day kindergarten program made little economic sense.
But now District 204's decision to expand kindergarten to full day is coming back to haunt the district.
And that's not all: The loss of more than twelve dozen teachers districtwide means class sizes will go up an average of two students. At the elementary level, some classes may have as many as 31 children, and some high school classes could see as many as 37 students. The district is also deliberating whether to remove a popular music technique program at the middle school, which many in its award-winning music department cite for the district's successes.
"There's no doubt that some of these cuts are past the fat and into the muscle," acknowledged Bradshaw at a recent board meeting.
But for residents like Doug DiFusco who ran unsuccessfully for the board in February, the cuts also mean a decline in District's 204's schools.
"What once made this district tremendous and great, now there's no funds to pay for it," said DiFusco. "I have two kids in the district, and I feel bad for them. If you don't have the revenue to pay for programs, they fail to exist. And that's a shame."
Some say the district also relied too heavily on tax dollars coming in from what was once booming new development. In its first year on the tax rolls, new property is not limited by the tax cap, and so new homes and new development brought in substantial revenue for a long time. But then new construction peaked in 2005, and since then it has declined by an estimated 57 percent.
"When I was there the district grew considerably," said Doug Gallois, District 204's assistant superintendent for finance and construction from 1994 to 2003. "Every year we had new property, and that was an advantage. I'm sure they don't have the extreme growth we had."
Unlike District 203, District 204 also saw more parents with younger children moving in, which meant more building needs. This past year, the district opened a new middle school and a gleaming new high school in Aurora with two baseball fields, two softball fields, two soccer fields, two football fields, 12 tennis courts, a pool with eight lanes and a stadium that can seat 4,000 people. Residents agreed to a tax rate referendum proposal to pay for the construction, but critics like Crockett think the district should have tackled overcrowding by building onto existing buildings like District 203, not constructing new structures and equipping them with a host of new staff.
And District 204 may have been spending less per pupil than District 203 — almost 10 percent less — but teachers in the southern district are no longer new teachers entering at lower salaries. The average teacher salary in District 204 has gone up from $57,790 in 2005 to $65,438 in 2009 — still much lower than the $77,764 average salary earned by District 203's teachers, but District 203 has sufficient local resources to pay for them.
Meantime, District 203 — which is still owed about $7 million from the state this year and estimates a 22 percent drop in total state funding, or about $5 million less, next year — has made budget adjustments of its own. Its teachers have agreed to a pay freeze for next year and raises tied to a percentage of the consumer price index in subsequent years. The district has sent out some pink slips to staff, but those are tied to performance issues and declining enrollment, not budgetary concerns, said District 203 spokeswoman Melea Smith.
If state cuts end up being worse than Quinn predicted, District 204 administrators say parents can expect further cuts, including possibly returning full-day kindergarten back to half day.
"If you look at most programs, we have to provide them, we don't have a choice," said David Holm, District 204's assistant superintendent of business. "In this case, the board has a choice — offer full day or not. We'll have to look at what point it does not become attractive enough for us to offer the program."
nahmed@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
chicagotribune.com
State budget cuts singe one Naperville school district, scorch another
Poorer school districts, more reliant on state funds, have most to lose
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Tribune reporter
April 11, 2010
Two years ago, Indian Prairie School District 204 was building state-of-the art schools and athletic facilities. For years, new homes regularly had been added to the tax rolls, which kept dollars rolling in. Administrators in the district covering south and west Naperville decided to expand kindergarten to a full school day.
In the older neighborhoods to the north and east, Naperville School District 203 was enlarging its older schools rather than building new ones. Although the district spent more per pupil than its southern neighbors, kindergarten remained a half-day program, which didn't sit well with some parents.
But in recent weeks, District 204 approved plans to cut 145 teachers and $21.4 million out of next year's budget, while its neighbors in District 203 made small budget adjustments that left the educational program largely intact.
Many parents are drawn to Naperville by the city's high-performing schools. The city — Illinois' fifth-largest — consistently ranks as one of the nation's best places to live.
Yet the school districts are a suburban "Tale of Two Cities" under Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed budget cuts. The different results of the funding shortfall offer a glimpse into the quirks in state funding that are causing some schools to lay off educators by the dozens while others are getting by with more minor belt-tightening.
First of all, the state funds some districts at higher rates than others. If a district's local resources are less than 93 percent of what the state determines as sufficient funding levels, a district is considered a "foundation level" district and is eligible for more state money.
Naperville's District 204 has more farm fields and vacant land than the more established parts of the city, so therefore less property wealth than District 203. The southern district also crosses into parts of Bolingbrook, Plainfield and Aurora, communities with lower property values than Naperville. That's one reason why under the state's calculation, District 204 was among the more needy school districts in DuPage County.
District 204 counted on the state for 16 percent of its budget, while District 203 relied on state funds for only 9 percent of its budget. With a greater dependence on funding, it's the foundation level schools — those the state has deemed the neediest — that have the most to lose if Quinn's proposed cuts to education funding take place.
District 204 is forecasting a 39 percent drop in state funds and a loss of more than $18 million this year.
"In this economy, all school districts are suffering," said Mohsin Dada, past president of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials. "But school districts with a greater reliance on state funding, if the state makes drastic reductions, they are going to have a very significant challenge."
But state funding is only part of the problem. Parent Michael Crockett blames the district for depending too heavily on the state.
"They should have seen it coming," Crockett said. "Our state is dysfunctional, and everyone knows that. We're relying on the state, and then we're adding full-day kindergarten and that's relying on them some more. It's just not responsible."
But District 204 school board president Curt Bradshaw wonders how a district can rely less on the state.
"It's flawed thinking," he said. "We could decide today to no longer be dependent on the state, but that would mean reducing our staff by 16 percent. It would not make sense for us to go it alone."
Instead, the district took advantage of its higher funding for such programs as full-day kindergarten. When they started the program two years ago, district officials were going to be getting $6 million more in state aid to fund the program, which they felt would enrich the area academically. The district would have to hire 43 new teachers, but would have $2 million left over after paying their salaries.
District 203, which would have received less state money, felt the full-day kindergarten program made little economic sense.
But now District 204's decision to expand kindergarten to full day is coming back to haunt the district.
And that's not all: The loss of more than twelve dozen teachers districtwide means class sizes will go up an average of two students. At the elementary level, some classes may have as many as 31 children, and some high school classes could see as many as 37 students. The district is also deliberating whether to remove a popular music technique program at the middle school, which many in its award-winning music department cite for the district's successes.
"There's no doubt that some of these cuts are past the fat and into the muscle," acknowledged Bradshaw at a recent board meeting.
But for residents like Doug DiFusco who ran unsuccessfully for the board in February, the cuts also mean a decline in District's 204's schools.
"What once made this district tremendous and great, now there's no funds to pay for it," said DiFusco. "I have two kids in the district, and I feel bad for them. If you don't have the revenue to pay for programs, they fail to exist. And that's a shame."
Some say the district also relied too heavily on tax dollars coming in from what was once booming new development. In its first year on the tax rolls, new property is not limited by the tax cap, and so new homes and new development brought in substantial revenue for a long time. But then new construction peaked in 2005, and since then it has declined by an estimated 57 percent.
"When I was there the district grew considerably," said Doug Gallois, District 204's assistant superintendent for finance and construction from 1994 to 2003. "Every year we had new property, and that was an advantage. I'm sure they don't have the extreme growth we had."
Unlike District 203, District 204 also saw more parents with younger children moving in, which meant more building needs. This past year, the district opened a new middle school and a gleaming new high school in Aurora with two baseball fields, two softball fields, two soccer fields, two football fields, 12 tennis courts, a pool with eight lanes and a stadium that can seat 4,000 people. Residents agreed to a tax rate referendum proposal to pay for the construction, but critics like Crockett think the district should have tackled overcrowding by building onto existing buildings like District 203, not constructing new structures and equipping them with a host of new staff.
And District 204 may have been spending less per pupil than District 203 — almost 10 percent less — but teachers in the southern district are no longer new teachers entering at lower salaries. The average teacher salary in District 204 has gone up from $57,790 in 2005 to $65,438 in 2009 — still much lower than the $77,764 average salary earned by District 203's teachers, but District 203 has sufficient local resources to pay for them.
Meantime, District 203 — which is still owed about $7 million from the state this year and estimates a 22 percent drop in total state funding, or about $5 million less, next year — has made budget adjustments of its own. Its teachers have agreed to a pay freeze for next year and raises tied to a percentage of the consumer price index in subsequent years. The district has sent out some pink slips to staff, but those are tied to performance issues and declining enrollment, not budgetary concerns, said District 203 spokeswoman Melea Smith.
If state cuts end up being worse than Quinn predicted, District 204 administrators say parents can expect further cuts, including possibly returning full-day kindergarten back to half day.
"If you look at most programs, we have to provide them, we don't have a choice," said David Holm, District 204's assistant superintendent of business. "In this case, the board has a choice — offer full day or not. We'll have to look at what point it does not become attractive enough for us to offer the program."
nahmed@tribune.com
Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune
