State Targets LW210's Finances in Investigation

The Illinois State Board of Education has opted to "initiate a proper investigation of the financial integrity" of Lincoln-Way High School District 210, according to a letter sent to Superintendent Scott Tingley.

As part of the investigation, the state requires that Lincoln-Way officials relinquish records including audits, projected cash flows, and major contracts. The investigation also calls for district officials to hand over annual bond audits for the past three years, monthly bank reconciliations by fund for the current year, as well as annual cash flow by fund for the past three years.

The district has until March 4 to comply with the state's request.

"As you may be aware, an investigation into a district's financial condition is the first step in a process of determining if conditions exist for 'certification of financial difficulty,'" the letter says.

It's been about a year since the district landed on the state's financial watch list, a designation that later led to the the board's decision to close Lincoln-Way North as an extreme cost-saving measure. The decision sparked the ire of Lincoln-Way District 210 residents, who call the move rash, unnecessary, anddestructive to the community. A group of parents representing as Lincoln-Way Taxpayers Unite last December filed a lawsuit against the district to try to stop the closing. They claim poor financial management on the district's part and have asked a judge to intervene to prevent the school closing. A judge could decided its fate as soon as Friday.

Parents have been demanding a closer look at the district's financial doings for months. Recent revelations include a private daycare business using district space rent-free, as well as a Superdog training facility built in 2011 that cost the district $45,000 but only since 2014 has yielded financial returns for the district.

The district also distributed $272,000 in retirement bonuses for 18 employees from 2013 to 2015, in addition to almost $200,000 in penalties paid to the state pension system.

“We believe the decision of the District 210 Board of Education to close an eight-year-old, state-of-the-art high school was not only unlawful, but an arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable decision aimed at preventing the Illinois State Board of Education and community members from learning about the malfeasance of the Board for the past 15 years,” said Todd Velky, a member of Lincoln-Way Area Taxpayers Unite.

In its 200-page lawsuit, LWATU decried the district’s penalties as just one of many examples of questionable, irresponsible, even sneaky, financial decisions.

“Our group of volunteers has uncovered consistent deficit spending because of unprecedented practices including raiding of the Student Activity Fund, and financial support of pet projects completely unrelated to the education of our students,” Velky said in January. “We have spent months analyzing the financial records of District 210, and information gathered from mountains of requests under the Freedom of Information Act. This is the work the Board should have been doing all along.”