Southwest Illinois town fears board will vote to close its school days before Christmas

Residents of the tiny village of Sorento fear that the Bond County CUSD 2 school board will vote to close their school just a few days before Christmas.

Some of them, including a member of the school board, further complain that the proposed closure has been kept hidden from the community of fewer than 500 people, and that the district’s superintendent “buried” notice of public hearings on the subject.

The school board will vote on whether to approve closing Sorento School on Wednesday, according to the agenda published on Monday.

Initial conversations about closing the school rose out of discussion of a Boundary/Enrollment plan presented in late 2019. The district has schools in three towns: Greenville, Pocahontas and Sorento. The K-8 schools in Pocahontas and Sorento are much smaller than the elementary and junior high schools in Greenville, and the district was looking for ways to even out the class sizes, according to public documents.

The entire district’s enrollment has decreased over the last several years, but the enrollment in Pocahontas and Sorento have dropped faster than other schools in the district.

Between September and December 2019, the board heard public comments about the plan, most of which urged against changing the boundary lines, according to school board meeting minutes.

On Dec. 9, the board first discussed the six options presented by Superintendent Wes Olson, none of which involved closing a school. Board Member Brian Zeeb, now the vice president, requested an “Option G” that would look at the costs and savings associated with closing Sorento School, the smallest school in the district, which Olson provided.

The school board didn’t take any definitive action at the time. By March 2020, district focus switched to addressing COVID-19 and remote learning, and the the issue of school boundaries was dropped.

Comparing the early 2020 and late 2021 meetings

The district hosted three meetings for public feedback in both early 2020 and late 2021, but there are some stark differences.

Illinois code on closing a school requires at least three public hearings, the sole purpose of which is to discuss the decision to close a school building and receive input. The three hearings in December 2021 are labeled as those public hearings, both in the notice and on the agendas. The legal requirement for hearings didn’t go into effect until July 2021; Olson said Monday that the district has never had hearings to close a school before this month.

In January 2020, when Bond County CUSD 2 held its first town halls, the new rules weren’t yet in effect.

While those three meetings in 2020 were dominated by comments on closing Sorento School, they were formally for the purpose of gathering feedback on the Boundary/Enrollment study, which included other plans that didn’t involve closing a school.

Notice of the 2021 hearings were posted on the school district’s website on Dec. 5 — exactly 10 days before the first hearing, as required — but it was buried on the website. Rather than being posted on the home page, anyone looking for the notice would have to click through to the school board’s page, then through to the little-used notice page to find it.

It is the only notice published in the 2021 archive, and there are no other archived years available, as of Monday. There’s no specification in Illinois Code about how accessible notices posted on the website need to be.

Illinois school districts are required to provide notice for other mandatory hearings, but there are inconsistencies in how Illinois directs districts to provide notice. Notice of a budget hearing, for example, has to be published in a newspaper — posting notice anywhere on website, however prevalent and visible, wouldn’t fulfill a district’s legal obligation.

Olson said the district met the legal requirements.

A school board member shared the notices

By Dec. 7, members of the Sorento community started posting about the notices after School Board Member Stephanie Gerl shared the public document, bringing attention to the hearings.

“I am sure most of you have heard through social media or otherwise that the Board of Education has scheduled hearings regarding the potential closing of Sorento School at the end of the 2021–2022 school year,” Olson wrote in a letter to parents. “The Board of Education has not taken any action on this matter, but is required to post and conduct hearings, as a statutory requirement, should they want to take action.”

Olson’s letter shared information about the hearings, reiterating that it was first published on the website on Dec. 5. It was emailed to parents and published under the main announcements section of the district’s website late on Dec. 13 — more than a week after it was first posted and less than 48 hours before the first hearing.

Gerl said she met with Olson on Dec. 8 and he asked for her approval and input — three days after the notice was published.

“The way they put it out for public viewing was very hidden, and (Olson) put that out before meeting with all of the board members,” Gerl said in an interview Saturday. “That’s bad form. That’s bad leadership.”

“My intent regarding the distribution of my letter to parents on (Dec. 13) was to provide supplemental notifications — in addition to those required by statute — to members of the school community,” Olson said in an email to Sorento parent Melissa Goymerac, which she provided to the Belleville News-Democrat. “I am pleased that this supplemental notice served to increase the availability of this important information, and I certainly welcome quality feedback from the community.”

The town halls in 2020 were first proposed by Olson in a public meeting. In a review of board minutes, there was no public mention of hosting hearings in December 2021. The 2020 town halls were also spread out geographically, with one each in Greenville, Pocahontas and Sorento; all three of the hearings this month are in Greenville.

Gerl is the only Bond County CUSD 2 school board member from Sorento; historically, she said one or two people from Sorento is typical on the seven-person board. She and three other members of the board were seated in April.

In the eight months since then, board meeting minutes indicate there has been no public board discussion about closing Sorento School or the Boundary/Enrollment Study. Gerl said there have also been no closed meeting discussions about either of those things since she’s been on the board.

While some of the new board members had been heavily involved with providing public feedback on the Boundary/Enrollment Study in 2019 and 2020, they will have never discussed it with the whole school board before Wednesday and the proposed vote.

The board could also decide not to take any action on Wednesday. Once the three hearings have been conducted, Illinois code doesn’t require a decision be made within any set amount of time.

Angry, upset, frustrated and defeated

Jennifer Hoxsey’s daughter is a fifth-generation Greyhound. Hoxsey’s father taught at Sorento School, and she said she moved back to Sorento specifically so her daughter could graduate from the school.

When Hoxsey first learned from social media about the hearings, she said it felt like a sucker punch and she had a surge of anger.

“You’re going to decide three days before Christmas to close our kids’ school?,” she said in an interview Saturday.

While the notice provided by the district met legal requirements, Hoxsey said she felt it was unethical and disrespectful.

The two hearings last week were held at 5:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Hoxsey, who commutes to her job in Edwardsville, had to take time off to get to Greenville in time for both of those meetings. The 4:30 p.m. meeting was so early, Hoxsey said two board members weren’t able to make it, which WGEL also reported.

Two years of attending school with COVID-19 have taken their toll on Hoxsey’s daughter. Potentially closing her school is adding to her stress, Hoxsey said.

“She is angry. She is upset,” Hoxsey said of her 10-year-old. “She is frustrated. She kind of feels defeated.”

This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 7:00 AM.