O’Fallon School District 90 open to exploring consolidation with neighboring districts
At a recent District 90 school board meeting, several parents and citizens brought up the issue of school district consolidation. Based on that feedback, O’Fallon School District 90 appears to be open to exploring consolidation...again.
District 90 wrote a letter to Central District 104, O’Fallon District 203 and Shiloh District 85 about three years ago to see if they might be interested in helping fund a consolidation study.
All three school districts replied to District 90, saying they were not in favor of studying consolidation at that time, Board President John Wagnon said.
At that time, District 90 put consolidation ideas on hold.
While consolidation was not listed on Tuesday’s school board meeting agenda, the board agreed to discuss the possibility of sending another letter at its Sept. 20 meeting.
It remains to be seen if there will be any takers or not in this latest consolidation attempt.
Consolidation is a form of reorganization where a new school district is created.
A school board for the new district is elected and new tax rates are developed in a consolidation.
New districts can be formed through consolidation as follows:
▪ Two or more entire contiguous elementary districts may form a new elementary district;
▪ Two or more entire elementary districts that are not contiguous but are collectively within or substantially coterminous with the boundaries of a high school district may form a new elementary district;
▪ Any contiguous and compact territory, no part of which is included within any unit district, may form a new unit district; and
▪ One or more entire contiguous unit districts plus any contiguous and compact territory, no part of which is included in any unit district, may form a new unit district.
Several steps would have to be followed any before consolidation could occur, including a petition, local public hearing, regional superintendent approval, state superintendent approval and referendum approval.
On Aug. 9, District 90 board member Todd Roach briefly discussed the possibility of sending a letter to other boards.
But if they agree to send the letter, this will be something the whole District 90 school board will need to agree upon, Wagnon said.
Once the board agrees to writing the letter, it will likely be Wagnon who pens it.
“If that happens, we’d likely request their interest in consolidation or helping fund a consolidation study,” he said.
Is it time to consolidate?
Several parents told the District 90 school board during an Aug. 9 public hearing, the timing might be right to pursue consolidation now.
Central School District 104 also recently installed a modular trailer on its elementary site. This district, located in west O’Fallon, is considering a referendum to help fund the construction of a new school to help alleviate its overcrowding issue.
The Central School Board on Monday will hear a presentation from architect William B. Ittner, who the school board hired earlier to look at building a new school in this elementary school district.
State funding for schools continues to be a concern.
Take Central, for instance. The Central School board unanimously passed resolutions that will allow for abatement from their working cash fund to aid the district as they enter their fourth year of deficit spending. $503,468 will be directed from the working cash fund to the education fund, and $626,463 will be directed from the working cash fund to the operations and maintenance fund.
After the abatements, the working cash fund will have a balance of $78,045, Superintendent John Bute said.
Bute said it will be up to the District 104 school board to decide if they’d be in favor of consolidating or not.
Last week, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said he favors local school districts having control.
“We have inadequate school funding,” he said. “I fought my first two years as governor to increase state support for education. We are the worst in America for funding our schools. I fought for more money last year than the General Assembly was even willing to give me. I demanded for money this year, and we got more money. We want to put more money into our schools every year. We want to have the best schools in every community in every neighborhood. We need more school support.”
Rauner walked off when asked if he’s pushing for more schools to consolidate.
But schools shouldn’t expect to receive any help from the federal government.
U.S. Senator Dick Durbin on Thursday called school consolidation “a visceral gut issue that people resist for a lot of reasons.”
He cited people have their own memories of their school they attended, their identity in towns and areas that are so tied to their local high school experience.
“But we do have to be open to providing the very best education for our children. That has to be our number one priority,” he said. “We have had consolidation over the years and I think it has benefited the students in that regard. It’s still going to be controversial. People are going to have their heart on saving their school.”
Durbin said he can see how consolidation leads to more efficiency and how you can offer better course offerings for students, particularly in rural areas.
“But it is a big, tough, heavy political lift,” Durbin said.
He doesn’t know if there is federal funding available to encourage more school districts to consolidate.
“That really is a state question,” he said.
But Durbin said the “state budget mess is not solved.”
“I wish the federal government could step in,” he said. “But we are facing our own deficit. Riding to the rescue is not on the agenda in Washington when it comes to state budgets and state pension systems. This is something that has to be resolved in each state.”
Durbin said school districts need to urge the governor and the General Assembly “to work out this budget mess as quickly as possible.”
“Our school funding of education is critical to our future,” he said. “As long as it’s in doubt, it really hurts us when it comes to developing jobs and businesses.”
Who may petition?
The boards of education of each affected school district may file a consolidation petition. Registered voters if signed by at least 50 voters or 10 percent of the voters residing within each affected district, whichever is less, may also petition.
The petition is filed with the regional superintendent of the region where the greater percentage of equalized assessed evaluation is located.
The petition shall request the submission of the proposition to form a new district at a regular scheduled election.
The petition shall describe the territory comprising the proposed district.
The petition shall set forth the maximum tax rates the proposed district shall be authorized to levy
A proposed district not subject to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) must include in the petition the maximum rates for educational, operations and maintenance, and pupil transportation purposes; in addition, the petition must include maximum rates for any
purpose the proposed district wishes to levy above the statutory permissive rate
A proposed district subject to PTELL must include in the petition the maximum rates for each purpose the new district will be authorized to levy; the aggregate extension base; and, if desired, the debt service extension base
The petition shall designate a Committee of Ten, any seven of whom may make binding stipulations on behalf of all petitioners
The petition may request that a school board for the new district be elected at the same election as the consolidation question
If a petition does not result in a consolidation, no subsequent petition can be filed for two years after the final determination on the first petition unless a substantially different petition is filed or a district included in the first petition is placed on the State Board of Education’s academic or financial watch list.
This story was originally published August 16, 2016 at 1:15 PM with the headline "O’Fallon School District 90 open to exploring consolidation with neighboring districts."