Merger Of Darien-Area School Districts Pushed

DARIEN, IL – A Darien alderman is urging officials to pursue merging three elementary school districts that include parts of Darien.

Those districts are Darien School District 61, Cass School District 63 and Center Cass School District 66.

Together, they serve about 3,200 students. That compares to Hinsdale School District 181, where enrollment is 3,600.

Consolidation of government entities is often recommended as a way to save taxpayer money. But officials often oppose the concept, doubting the savings.

Last week, Darien Alderman Eric Gustafson spoke to the Center Cass school board. He noted his opposition to a proposed property tax increase of nearly 25 percent, which must go before voters.

At the same time, he said consolidation would help taxpayers in the three Darien-area districts.

"The consolidation would allow for the elimination of district-level staff, and the dollar level of savings would be very substantial," Gustafson said. "Approximately, 15 percent of the residents in my Ward 6 that are included in District 66 are retirees. They cannot afford to continue to pay for tax increases when there are expense reductions available through district consolidation."

If Illinois cut the number of school districts in half, Gustafson said, it could see savings of $130 million to $170 million. The majority of those savings would be realized by reducing staff, he said.

If officials merged the three Darien-area districts, Hinsdale District 181 would still have one more school and hundreds more students than the new consolidated district, Gustafson said.

With 850 school districts, Illinois has more than every state but Texas and California, which are much larger in population.

Florida, which is nearly 75 percent bigger than Illinois, has just 67 school districts.

Overall, Illinois has nearly 7,000 local government entities, far more than any other state.

Despite this, combining or eliminating any government body is difficult, as history shows.

Recently, a state lawmaker proposed merging a "paper" fire district just north of Elmhurst with a nearby district.

The "paper" district has provided no actual fire service in more than three decades; its only responsibility is to send annual checks to two nearby fire departments. But that takes more than $30,000 in bureaucracy every year.

The fire district's board resists consolidation, saying it would cost taxpayers more money.