State probes metro-east school district’s budget, may declare ‘financial difficulty’
The Illinois State Board of Education will vote on whether to certify Grant Community Consolidated School District 110 as being “in financial difficulty” at its regular business meeting Wednesday, an action it hasn’t taken since June 2016.
If approved, the Fairview Heights district would be required to submit a financial plan, which must budget for solvency, within 45 days, according to a memo included in the meeting’s agenda packet. If the state board of education approves the financial plan, but the district fails to follow it, the state could then appoint a financial oversight panel.
According to Grant 110’s annual financial report for fiscal year 2023, it had a deficit of about $1.8 million in its operating funds and a negative fund balance of about $290,000 at the end of the fiscal year.
The district has been on the state’s “financial early warning” list for fiscal years 2021 and 2022, and it failed to submit financial information — such as its adopted budgets for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 and annual statements of affairs for fiscal year 2022 — to the state board of education in a timely manner, according to the memo.
This prompted State Superintendent Tony Sanders to request the information in addition to other documents to conduct an investigation of the district’s financial condition.
Grant 110 failed to provide any of the requested information by the Dec. 15, 2023, deadline, but it did submit all but two of the documents later in December and in January.
Superintendent Matt Stines told the BND Tuesday that the district has submitted the remaining two documents. He explained that the small school district’s office consists of him and a bookkeeper, a position that has had a lot of turnover.
“It just doesn’t work when you’ve got that many people trying to balance the books,” he said.
As a result, some things weren’t done on the bookkeeping side that should have been, and now it’s taking some time to correct, he said.
The Illinois School Code allows the state board of education to certify that a district is in financial difficulty “when the district refuses to provide financial information or cooperate with the state superintendent in an investigation of the district’s financial condition,” the memo says.
It also states that Grant 110 has had a deficit in its operating funds for years, relies on issuing working cash fund bonds to supplement its revenue and failed to apply for several federal grant programs dating back to fiscal year 2020.
In Illinois, public school district budgets are divided into separate funds. The operating funds — the educational, operations and maintenance, transportation and working cash funds — make up the bulk of the budget, and money can be transferred between them by board resolution.
According to Grant 110’s annual financial reports, the district has had a deficit in its operating funds since fiscal year 2012.
On the Illinois Report Card for school year 2022-23, Illini Elementary received an “exemplary” designation, indicating it is in the top 10% of schools statewide in terms of overall performance. Grant Middle School was deemed “commendable,” the second-highest designation.
This story was originally published March 13, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
