Suburban Superintendents Weigh Options for Next School Year Amid State Budget Crisis

Photo caption -- From left to right: Paul Gordon, Glen Ellyn District 41 superintendent; Jeff Schuler, Community Unit District 200 superintendent; and Kent Mutchler, Geneva District 304 superintendent

School officials from across the suburbs may be facing especially dire financial times in coming months.

Last week, a divide between Democrats who control both the Senate and House kept a school funding plan from passing before the end of the spring legislative session, according to the Chicago Tribune. Without an education budget, Chicago Public School chief Forrest Claypool told the Chicago Tribune Wednesday public schools in Chicago will not open for the 2016-17 school year if the state government does not approve an education budget.

“Without a state education budget, I would say that most of the schools in the state won’t open,” Forrest Claypool told WGN.

That statement by Claypool, and the continued state budget crisis, was a hot topic at a two-day Large Unit School District Association conference in Itasca, which included school officials from some of the larger K-12 districts in the state. Gov. Bruce Rauner spoke to superintendents on Thursday about the budget.

And while it is nothing new for administrators to have to wait for the state to pass a budget, this year’s situation feels much more dire for schools, Community Unit School District 200 Superintendent Jeff Schuler said in a Friday interview with Patch.

"It definitely feels different this year,” Schuler said. “It’s very concerning.”

But, what does this all mean for your school district? Patch.com reached out to several superintendents throughout the suburbs to get their feedback. Here is what they had to say.

Geneva District 304, Glen Ellyn District 41: We Will Open This Fall

Geneva District 304 schools will open this fall -- with or without state funding, District 304 Superintendent Kent Mutchler said in a statement Thursday.

Administrators for District 304 schools, which serve 5,900 students, would find a way to operate if state funding is not an option, Mutchler said.

“The district is prepared to operate with other sources of revenue, though the loss of state funding will be felt in cuts to some important services,” Mutchler said in a statement. Mutchler did not provide details on which services could be hardest hit by the cuts.

Glen Ellyn School District 41, which includes 3,600 kids in grades kindergarten through eighth grade, will also be able to open this fall -- even if state funding is not an option, District 41 Superintendent Paul Gordon said in an e-mail.
Gordon said nearly 88 percent of funds for District 41 come from property taxes while only 5.5 percent, or $2.2 million, of the district’s funding is expected to come from state funds next school year. The school district also has some money reserved in fund balances.

“The school district will be fine for one school year,” Gordon said. “However, the loss of all state funding for a longer period of time would cause the school district to reduce costs and potentially eliminate some programming.”

Community Unit School District 200: Wait and See

Community Unit School District 200 Superintendent Jeff Schuler said school officials within his district, which serves just over 13,000 students, would start discussing how to handle the possibility of operating next year without state funds during budget talks next week. The school board meets on Wednesday.

The state has until June 30 to establish a budget but Schuler said school officials from across the suburbs are beginning to discuss how they would proceed with the 2016-17 school year without state funds.

“The school board will have to wrestle with what that will mean (for our schools),” Schuler said. “They will have to make a decision on how to fill that gap.”

Schuler said about 10 percent of the district’s funding comes from the state with the majority of expenses for District 200 schools being covered by property taxes.

Crystal Lake District 47: Delay of Funds Would 'Impact the Delivery of Education Services'

School Officials within Crystal Lake District 47 echoed the sentiments of many area administrators in the following statement regarding the budget provided to Patch.

​A​ delay of state school funding might require the use of reserves during the 2016-17 school year until funding was restored. A prolonged delay or loss of state funding might impact the delivery of education services.

What's Next?

The big question that now remains is whether legislators will be able to pull it together to pass an education budget now that the legislature has adjourned for the spring session. The Chicago Tribune provides some insight:

But the difficulty level for crafting an agreement rose when Tuesday's deadline passed. It now will take a super-majority of legislators to pass any bill, requiring a level of bipartisan cooperation that gets less likely as November elections — in which each part hopes to gain a political advantage — gets nearer.

Mutchler chastised state legislators for using “education as a political bargaining chip.”

“Under the Constitution of the State of Illinois the state legislature has an obligation to fund our schools,” he said. “We pay our legislators to do their jobs and we expect them to work collaboratively to reach solutions.”