Aug. 13--Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210 is poised to close one of its four high schools. The school board is expected to vote Thursday on which campus will get the ax. The move will save roughly $5.2 million a year.
The district, which includes Tinley Park, Frankfort, Mokena and New Lenox, faces a $5.5 million deficit, and deficits are expected to grow in future years. The district recently landed on the State Board of Education's financial watch list.
Many residents are aghast that their district is in such precarious financial shape, but they also don't want to lose a school. We understand. People develop a strong attachment to the schools they or their children attended.
But what's happening in Lincoln-Way is likely to happen in more school districts across the state. It's evidence why residents have to hold school board members to strict account for spending.
Lincoln-Way ranks in the top 50 districts in the state for combined teacher and administrator base salaries, a notch below New Trier, according to a recent study by Reboot Illinois, a nonpartisan watchdog organization.
Lawrence Wyllie, a retired superintendent who oversaw the Lincoln-Way district for 24 years, gets nearly $300,000 a year in pension income. That's paid by the state teachers retirement fund, but it's based on salary decisions made by the local school board.
Lincoln-Way racked up $277,204 in penalties to the state for giving end-of-career pay bumps to teachers and administrators that busted a cap in state law. The state waived part of that penalty, but Lincoln-Way taxpayers still had to pay $198,893.
Even with all the red ink staring at school board members, they approved a three-year teachers contract that included modest raises each year.
Lincoln-Way is paying in part for a decision nearly a decade ago to sell $225 million in bonds to build two new high schools in New Lenox and Frankfort Township. Voters accepted at the time that it was justified: Will County's population was growing fast. There were going to be more students -- and more taxpayers to foot the bill.
But the recession hit, and planned housing developments in the area were curbed or scrapped. The two new schools -- Lincoln-Way North opened in 2008 and Lincoln-Way West opened in 2009 -- have never reached capacity. They're huge, sparkling schools. But there aren't enough students to fill them or taxpayers to pay for them. Taxpayers get stuck paying off those bonds, even if one of the schools shuts down.
Closing a school is a tough call, but the right call. The board is making up for some poor decisions in the past. Parents don't want their kids to have to switch schools. But the math here is clear. Lincoln-Way doesn't have the money to run every one of its schools.
For all the focus on the financial calamity in Chicago Public Schools, keep something in mind. The financial reckoning that's coming is not confined to the city's borders.
