Southern Illinois school superintendents prepare for worst in state budget impasse

Several Southern Illinois school superintendents still expect Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the largely Democratic state legislature to pass a state budget before the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

“My belief is that the state of Illinois does not want students to not have a place to go,” said Andrea Evers, superintendent of the Cairo Unified School District in Cairo, Illinois, said.

They are preparing for the possibility, however, the two sides do not reach a deal on school funding.

“I found out a long time ago not to put much stock into what the state says,” said Rob Wright, superintendent of Anna-Jonesboro schools in Illinois.

Elverado, Illinois, school superintendent Kevin Spain said he would not be able to keep his schools open past November without state funding.

If that possibility proves true, he said the district will have to consider not opening in August. Starting the year would necessitate taking out a loan against the district’s property-tax income. The loan would have to be paid back by spring 2017.

Spain said proration of state funding already has affected his district negatively. If the district received the full $6,119 per student, they would have gotten $2.5 million for the 2015-2016 school year. With proration, that number dropped to $2.3 million. Spain said the $200,000 difference would have been used for teachers. The district already has cut music, art and certified nursing programs. Language programs are conducted online.

“When we started cutting programs like that, people started leaving,” Spain said. “We lost 50 kids last year.”

Wright said Anna-Jonesboro would be able to complete the first semester, but the schools in his district may have to close if the budget impasse continues into 2017. He said property-tax payments before the end of 2016 would allow the district to stay open through the end of the year.

“I know we’re in better shape than a lot of schools around,” Wright said.

Anna-Jonesboro has been a district on the upswing over the past couple of years, with rising enrollment, a slight increase in state aid and a healthy amount of funding in reserves. The district has been able to keep most of its teachers over the past couple of years. Wright attributes the district’s relative health to his predecessors.

“We’ve been on such a tight budget for such a long time,” Wright said. “Things have stabilized.”

But not receiving state aid would nullify all that progress, Wright said.

Evers said Cairo schools would be able to stay up through the completion of the 2016-2017 school year because the district has sizable amount of money in reserves.

But Evers is worried about a couple of variables that could affect that. One would be an unforeseen expense, such as a broken heating and cooling system. The other might be an influx of students from neighboring schools that cannot stay open without state funding.

“You don’t plan for things going perfectly,” Evers said. “People are making decisions they thought they would not have to make.”

Michael Shimshak, superintendent of Carbondale Elementary Schools in Carbondale, Illinois, said his district also will have enough funding in reserves to complete the 2016-2017 school year. Shimshak said Carbondale has a strong property tax base, negating some of the need for state funding.

“I believe our situation is not the norm for our region,” Shimshak said.

bkleine@semissourian.com

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