Could Closing a School be in LW's Future? Lincoln-Way 210 Faces Tough Financial Questions

After years of deficit spending, Lincoln-Way School District 210 landed on the state’s 2015 Financial Watch list this spring. To get Lincoln-Way’s books in order, district officials must consider a range of options for the coming school year, including teacher and staff layoffs, program cuts or a tax-hike referendum.

Beyond those moves, however, looms another possibility — the closing of a high school.

District administrators are privately debating whether and how to close one of the four high schools for the 2016-17 academic year, sources tell Patch. Rumors of such a move have been making their way through the school community for several weeks, focusing specifically on Lincoln-Way North and Lincoln-Way West, the district’s two newest schools.

Board of Education member Kevin Molloy said “no formal discussions” have taken place among board of education members.

“Amongst us as board members, administration, in board packets, there has never been any discussion of closing a school,” Molloy told Patch. “It’s tough, people will surmise what they want to surmise. It’s so difficult to hear this. Hurtful stuff to the kids, to the teachers.”

An email circulated last week to district residents by the administration acknowledged parents and taxpayers have been calling the district to inquire about the school-closing rumors. Superintendent Scott Tingley “clarified that there has been no board discussion regarding the sale of district educational properties, nor has the board discussed closing any district high schools.”

Built at a combined cost of $180 million, North opened its doors to students in 2008 and West followed in 2009. North draws students from Frankfort Square, Tinley Park and parts of Mokena. West’s students are from New Lenox and Mokena. Construction was approved by voters in 2006, and $225 million in bonds were issued to build the two new schools and improve Lincoln-Way East, built in 1977, and Lincoln-Way Central, built in 1954.

At the time the schools were planned, under the stewardship of longtime Superintendent Larry Wyllie who retired in 2013, Will County was riding a wave of record-setting housing development and commercial growth. The county was one of the fastest growing regions in the country, according to the U.S. census. But years of recession and a stagnant economy brought that growth to a halt. Planned housing developments in Frankfort and New Lenox sit mostly vacant today.

“If you would have told us that in 2015 we would have 7,000 students—we wouldn’t have built four high schools,” Tingley told Patch.

Enrollment was projected to reach 9,000 students. Today, 7,134 students attend classes in Lincoln-Way 210: 1,304 at West; 1,742 at North; 1,899 at Central; and 2,188 at East.

Without the economic and residential growth, additional property tax dollars did not materialize. And the state of Illinois has not delivered its share of school funding, either.

DISTRICT 210 FINANCES, VIA ISBE

• 2014 Financial Profile
  
• 2013 Financial Profile
  
• 2012 Financial Profile
  
• 2011 Financial Profile
  
• 2010 Financial Profile

Discussing the Financial Watch list designation at a March school board meeting, Tingley “reminded the board that if student enrollment had reached, 9,000 as projected, the district would have realized an additional $12 million in state revenue alone,” according to the board minutes.

The district’s financial status has been discussed at least one meeting of the Lincoln-Way Education Association, which represents about 450 teachers.

“The subject came up, we talked about what could happen, and we just don’t know,” said association president Tim Conway.

“Could they close a campus? Sure. Could they redraw boundaries? Sure. Could they go to referendum? Sure,” he told Patch. “I don’t know how receptive the community would be to a referendum. We have to wait and see what they come up with once they really crunch the numbers.”

Lincoln-Way joins Chicago Public Schools and 36 other Illinois districts in dire financial straits on the 2015 Financial Watch list, the lowest financial rating made by the Illinois State Board of Education. District administrators are discussing options with ISBE representatives.

Led by Tingley, a first-time superintendent who took the helm in 2013, administrators will gather data on enrollment projections, expected revenue and anticipated funding—a process expected to take up to 90 days. A thorough review of all the information will take place before bringing the information to the public.

Ever since the schools opened, the district has been drawing on its cash reserve to finance operations, Tingley said.

“We’ve been waiting for the state, the economy to come back, and those things haven’t happened yet,” Tingley said. “We’ve run out of those reserves, and no one-time sources are expected for the foreseeable future.”

The district’s future financial strategy hinges on the outcome of Illinois Senate Bill 1, known as the School Funding Reform Act of 2014, which would alter the state’s funding formula for public schools. If this passes, the district stands to lose $2.3 million, Molloy said.

ISBE spokesman Matt Vanover told Patch that advisers from the state board will analyze the district’s budget and offer alternatives or suggestions where possible.

“We are working with them to try to see if we can’t help them increase their efficiencies,” he said. “It continues to be a work in progress.”

Vanover said buildings will be part of the analysis.

“One of the things a district is going to have to do, is look at their building needs, and whether or not all of their buildings are being used to capacity,” Vanover said.

Molloy said all possible cost-savings options would need to be exhausted before deciding to close a school.

Conway fears the district may zero in on teaching staff as a place to cut costs. The teachers union recently extended teachers’ contracts for three years, in part to provide the board with projections of its costs for that period of time.

“In that regard, we’ve already worked with them,” Conway said. “Everything else, we’d have to see what they come up with. The lion’s share of the costs, are labor costs. That’s always the preferred place to cut.

“We are willing to listen to whatever plan they come up with.”

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