Moving toward one school district unit?

District 231 aiming to further discussions with RTHS

Russell Hodges
Posted 7/31/17

Rochelle Elementary School District 231 took one of its first steps toward a potential consolidation with Rochelle Township High School District 212 Tuesday evening, with the District 231 Board of Education and Superintendent Todd Prusator holding an open

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Moving toward one school district unit?

District 231 aiming to further discussions with RTHS

Posted

ROCHELLE — Rochelle Elementary School District 231 took one of its first steps toward a potential consolidation with Rochelle Township High School District 212 Tuesday evening, with the District 231 Board of Education and Superintendent Todd Prusator holding an open meeting at Lincoln Elementary School to inform the public of its case for potential consolidation.

The meeting was a requirement for the District 231 Board of Education to submit an application for a waiver of certain school code provisions to allow the district to file a petition with the District 212 Board of Education to consolidate and form an Optional Elementary Unit District (OEUD). The District 231 Board of Education approved a motion to gather at Lincoln School Tuesday evening during its monthly board meeting in July.

The waiver is designed to allow Districts 231 and 212 to move forward with discussions regarding consolidation while allowing Rochelle’s four feeder districts (Kings 144, Eswood 269, Steward 220 and Creston 161) to remain independent. Both District 231 and District 212 are required to submit waiver applications at the same time in order for the two sides to move forward. The current waiver deadline is Friday, Aug. 11, and both sides would need to wait until January 2018 to submit waiver applications if the August deadline is not met.

“The inequitable and inadequate system of General State Aid and the proration of General State Aid which adversely impacts poorer districts… has created a disparity within communities which have dual districts in which the elementary districts are in much worse financial shape than high school districts,” Prusator said. “Even with controlling expenditures with minimal salary increases for past and future years, the financial projections for District 231 are not sustainable due to the inadequate and inequitable funding system.”

Under current projections including General State Aid, salary difference incentives and a one-time transition incentive, a consolidated school district could receive as much as $11,188,044 from the state over a four-year period. The elementary district has lost $2,046,875 of potential revenue due to General State Aid proration since 2011, and the district has finished six of the last eight fiscal years with a deficit in its education fund.

Total revenue for District 231 is expected to decline annually through the 2022 fiscal year, while expenditures are projected to rise each year from $13,279,463 in 2017 to $15,177,599 by 2022. The loss of revenue and increase in expenditures could put the elementary district at a $4,067,763 deficit during the 2022 fiscal year if no changes are made.

“With the current projections… District 231 will have two choices,” Prusator said. “We can significantly reduce staff and increase class sizes, but that would have a detrimental impact on students and teachers’ abilities to address the needs of future students. Or we can push a referendum to increase the education fund tax rate that will have a detrimental impact on taxpayers.”

The elementary district began discussions with the high school district about a potential consolidation in September 2016, and the Rochelle Elementary Education Association (REEA) submitted a letter to the District 212 Board of Education and Superintendent Jamie Craven (who is now the superintendent of DeKalb School District 428) in October 2016 to encourage discussions between the two districts. REEA President Ben Baar spoke briefly during Tuesday’s meeting to further encourage the districts to come together.

“I’m proud of our school district and I’m proud of our association,” Baar said. “We’re all highly qualified… Let’s not look at this as a war between tribes because it’s not. All of our kids are going to be Hubs… We are just looking at the possibility of what it’s going to look like as a unit district down the line. I’m excited about the process, and other people may not be in favor of it, but let’s just go down the process and see what happens.”

The meeting went just over one hour in length, with members of the public receiving a chance to offer their thoughts before the District 231 Board of Education motioned to adjourn. Some audience members were skeptical of how the elementary district’s projections would hold up, while others were cautious of the uncertainty a potential consolidation could bring.

“We’re very appreciative of Todd’s efforts and the board’s efforts to address the issue,” Kathy Hollonbeck said. “$9 to $11 million is a lot of money, but it seems that we’ve just begun this conversation and I think it would be really good if we broadened it… We’re just getting started with this.”

“With the numbers and the affairs that our state is in, what kind of guarantee do we have that we will get that money?” Gail Jordal added. “That’s what concerns me. The numbers sound good, but what happens if the state doesn’t show up with the money?”

Prusator, who worked at Rochelle Township High School for 14 years before spending his last 12 years with District 231, closed the open discussion during Tuesday’s meeting with one final plea for continued dialogue for consolidation.

“I have great respect for the high school,” Prusator said. “I think we have a great high school district and I’m extremely proud that my kids went there. It’s a great culture… We have two great districts with two great cultures, and by having those two cultures come together, I think that can be one powerful unit district.”