Lemont Superintendents: Senate Bill 16 Would Cost Our Schools $2 Million

Pending legislation in the Illinois House of Representatives could remove nearly $2 million annually from Lemont schools. As the superintendents of your local school districts, it is our responsibility to educate you about this potential legislative action, the repercussions that it would have on our budgets, and most importantly, the impact it would have on the students that we serve.

Senate Bill 16—also known as the School Funding Reform Act of 2014—passed the Illinois State Senate in May 2014, and currently is under review by the Illinois House of Representatives. The intent of this legislation is to improve the state’s school funding formula. If implemented, it would create a single weighted formula that would change the way schools are funded.

The weighted formula will be offset against a district’s local resources. Generally, school districts with higher assessed property values will receive much less in state funding.

This legislation is a redistribution of current resources, and will not include any “new money” for education. Unfortunately, the result of the bill will leave some school districts as “winners” and others as “losers,” and there is little doubt as to within which category our school districts will fall.

As currently written, Senate Bill 16 will have a significant, negative impact on both school districts that serve your community—at no fault of either district—resulting in a combined potential annual loss of $1,880,596 (based on FY13 calculations). The revenue removed from Lemont-Bromberek Combined School District 113A and Lemont High School District 210 would be distributed to other school districts throughout the state.

The impact to District 113A would border on catastrophic. Based on current calculations, District 113A would lose $1,225,764—or 75 percent—of its state funding. The District 113A Board of Education, administration and staff have worked relentlessly in recent years to put the district’s financial house back in order and repair its financial standing. Removing this amount from District 113A’s annual budget would be a major setback.

District 210 also would be hit significantly if such legislation were enacted, losing $654,832—or 72 percent—of its state funding.

The state already has prorated its annual General State Aid contributions to school districts for several years, so schools have had to become adept at dealing with reduced state funding. However, these are not holes in the budget that can be filled easily. Reductions this large could result in the loss of successful educational and extra-curricular programs, as well as the loss of teachers.

We agree with the legislature that the way that schools are funded in Illinois needs to be fixed. This simply is not the way to do it.

Dr. Courtney Orzel, Superintendent, Lemont-Bromberek Combined School District 113A
Dr. Mary Ticknor, Superintendent, Lemont High School District 210