Tuesday, May 10, 2011
 
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Illinois school chief: Forced consolidation won't happen this year

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[May 10, 2011]  SPRINGFIELD -- Some of Illinois' 868 school districts may come together before the start of the next school year. But it will not be because state school leaders have ordered them to consolidate.

InsuranceState Superintendent Chris Koch said Thursday that Gov. Pat Quinn's proposal to force school consolidation is all but dead.

"I doubt there is going to be anything that comes out this year that gives that kind of direction, that says you have to consolidate," Koch said.

Koch said the Illinois State Board of Education has always had the power to step in and take over failing schools. He said that power also includes the ability to dissolve a local school district. Koch said the state board will continue to "focus on incentives" to consolidation.

Few lawmakers supported Quinn's proposal to require mergers. Even fewer local school officials supported it.

Morris Elementary School District 54 Superintendent Terri Shaw said folks in Morris have never liked the idea of school consolidation, and they liked the idea of a state mandate even less.

"We've looked at (consolidation) in the past, but local school boards have always said no," said Shaw.

Morris is a town of 12,000 residents, and Shaw's district is one of four in the community. She is responsible for about 500 students, with the smallest of the local schools enrolling a little more than 100 students. But Shaw said parents don't want to merge the schools, so Morris will likely continue with four separate districts.

"Who is paying the bills? Local taxpayers are paying the bills at local school districts," said Shaw. "Those are the people with a vested interest in the schools. And they don't want change."

State Rep Pam Roth, R-Morris, said local parents know the most about their local schools.

"If (school consolidation) makes sense in a community and a community is supportive of it, it needs to be a community decision. I don't think as a General Assembly we should be making and mandating school consolidation," Roth said.

About 108 miles to the west in Colona, Superintendent Kyle Ganson said he doubts parents in his Quad Cities area district will ever merge the five elementary school districts that feed United Township High School.

"There are a lot of local issues, nuances really, that would have to be worked out if the local districts were to come together," Ganson said.

Ganson said each of the five local elementary districts have different costs, different debt loads and different needs. There would have to be sweeping agreements before consolidation could ever move forward.

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Quad Cities area state Rep. Rich Morthland, R-Moline, said if school mergers make sense, it may be worthwhile for the state to look at consolidations.

"There may be savings," said Morthland. "But you also have to ask, at what cost?"

Ganson said Illinois owes schools across the state billions of dollars and does not appear to have a plan to pay those debts. He said he doubts the state can make consolidation work.

"I've been doing this for 28 years. And each year I lose confidence in the government, both in Springfield and Washington, that they know what is best for education," Ganson said.

Quinn first proposed the idea of required consolidation during his budget speech in February. Quinn said Illinois has too many school districts and too many highly paid superintendents.

Koch said the idea of forced consolidation caught him by surprise as well.

"We had not done any analysis around that," he said. "It was not something that we had input into or crafting the numbers for."

[Illinois Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]

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