Kosel, School Officials Skeptical of Governor's District Consolidation Plans

Updated 4:30 p.m. March 2

Rep. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island) after hearing lots of opposition. In summer 2012, the bill would have abolished all school districts except Chicago and require counties to create and assume responsbility of new districts.

Previously:

As elected state leaders are talking about various plans that could consolidate school districts, reducing more than 500, local officials say the plans will be extremely complicated and could possibly remove local control.

Last week, Gov. Pat Quinn said that by eliminating about 500 districts from the current total of 868, the state could save $100 million by reducing administrative redundancies, according to an article from Illinois Statehouse News. As of now, changing a school district occurs on the local level, but Quinn's office says its plan would involve legislating consolidations.

Various legislation is circulating in the House and Senate with different proposals on how to actually accomplish this feat. In the meantime, the superintendents of the elementary and high school districts here say while they're comfortable with both the size and efficiency of their districts.

“I think there’s something to be said about looking to be efficient," District 122 Superintendent Mike Sass said. "But is 300 the right number? I’m not so sure. We’re probably in a good size right now for efficiency.”

Here's a recap of proposed legislation from some state legislators:

• HB1886, sponsored by Rep. Roberta Rita (D-Blue Island): In summer 2012, would abolish all school districts except Chicago and require counties to create and assume responsbility of new districts. 
• SB1234, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston): Would require the State Board of Education to conduct a study and make recommendations on which districts to consolidate. The state board would submit plans to the General Assembly and governor by Jan. 1, 2013.
• HB1216, sponsored by Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora): Would establish the School District Realignment and Consolidation Commission to make recommendations to the governor and General Assembly on the number of school districts in the state, the optimal amount of enrollment for a district and where consolidation and realignment would be beneficial.

Administrative Redundancies

Chapa LaVia, like those who support her, believe the consolidation efforts would reduce administrative costs that she believes are out of control.

"When I look around the state and know that 274 superintendents make more money than the governor of the state of Illinois, and some of them make more than the president of the United States, there's a problem with that if you're a public servant and you're making that much money," she said to Illinois State News.

But certain areas, such as New Lenox and Lincoln-Way (and beyond) would require the need for more regional or assistant superintendents, administrators said.

Kevin Molloy, a Lincoln-Way High School District 210 board member, said that the high schools already cooperate with the elementary feeder districts, and that the size is working as well for the area as a regional unit district would. For example, Lincoln-Way already operates busing for many feeder districts, and the high schools work with elementary schools on curriculum needs and preparedness.

"My feeling is that Lincoln-Way for the most part has already worked under a consolidated district for quite a while," Molloy said. "We cooperate very well together (with feeder districts)."

'Too Big to Be Efficient'

Although the governor's call for efficiency is understood by most, the means to that end could be a pipe dream, Rep. Renee Kosel (R-New Lenox) said. Especially if the state were to go with Rita's plans to form county districts, at least locally.

"It could function well downstate," Kosel said. "But a Will County district? Oh my goodness. It would be too big to be efficient. I can't fathom that. I can't see how the state can mandate one size to fit all school districts across the state."

Kosel suggested possibly trying consolidation of some school districts and seeing how it works before mandating it for the entire state.

Some residents in Orland Park have bemoaned the bill through a Facebook group that's rapidly gaining support, saying districts could become a "gigantic bureaucracy" and to oppose such as plan.

Sass feared the same issue for larger districts if they were to combine, but he noted there are some districts that would certainly benefit from consolidation. For example, there are some school districts in Will County that operate with just one school.

“Is that too small to be giving kids everything we should be?" he said. "On the other end you look at Chicago Public Schools, which is huge, and the superintendent probably doesn’t even know the names of some of his schools. We need to find what is that optimal number.”

Losing Local Control

The plans elected leaders are pursuing would give the state control over these decisions, not the school districts. Having the state direct school districts to do this might avoid a situation where residents agree with the concept but don't want it in their community, state Superintendent of Education Chris Koch has said. 

But if the directions are coming from Springfield, local educators hope they'll consider it to be the very complicated issue it is.

"If he does it too rapidly, are they going to be thinking through the details?" Sass said of the governor and General Assembly. "Because that happens a lot in Springfield.”

More importantly, District 210 Superintendent Lawrence Wyllie said, the state's control over this matter would result in numerous complications by combining multiple districts. Issues such as salary schedules, tax rates and assumed debt would all need to be put under one umbrella, which Wyllie said could be extremely expensive to accomplish given that each district can be diverse in this regard. 

And when it comes to figuring out these issues at the local level, Wyllie said it would be difficult to abolish various school boards and suddenly operate with a more regional, decentralized governing body.

"Say people live in a subdivision in one area and they don’t like something," Wyllie said as an example. "Right now, they go to the board and get a response. Now they would go to a more regional board that could say, 'So What?'

"The local control is gone."