Morrison Schools Face ‘Funding Challenges’

Ron Kallemeyn For The Prairie Advocate News

On Tuesday, March 2nd, the Morrison School District held a public forum on the district’s funding issues and budget cutting for the next school year and beyond. As school superintendent Dr. Suellen Girard put it, the Morrison School district has a “funding challenge” due in most part to the State of Illinois significantly cutting the amount of funds that it sends to the district.

The meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. at the Morrison high School auditorium.. On the stage were Dr. Girard, the entire school board, the principals from the high school, junior high, and the elementary schools, and the district facilities manager. There were also over one hundred concerned citizens and parents in attendance. Dr. Girard gave a PowerPoint presentation describing how the district obtains its funding, the shortfall from the state, items that they are looking at cutting, and possible revenue sources. All of the facts and data reported here come from her presentation.

The Bad News

First, Dr. Girard gave a run down on the state’s budget problems, both past and present. The state’s lawmakers have been running a structural budget deficit for many years and it has been catching up them. They have been borrowing funds from pensions and other dedicated funds in addition to selling off assets to fund the state’s general and education budget shortfalls. For the last two budget years, Illinois has used nearly a billion dollars from the American Recovery Act stimulus money to fund its education shortfalls.

The State of Illinois currently has about a $13 billion deficit. Education is now the third largest budget area after healthcare and pensions. Education used to be the state’s largest budget area. Illinois ranks last in the percent of funding from the state for education. It also “ranks at the bottom in fairness for educational funding.” In other words, since each school district receives most of its revenue from local property taxes, there is a large difference in funding levels for school districts that happen to contain nuclear power plants, large industrial areas, or other high value properties versus living in an area where property tax values are depressed.

The Morrison School District receives its funding from a variety of sources. By far, the largest percentage of funding comes from local property taxes which was about 46% of the funding in 2008. The next largest source of funding is the State of Illinois. In 2008, the funding from the federal government only amounted to a small portion of the total funding the district received.

This school year and last school year the district received a much larger proportion of their funding from federal sources because of the American Recovery Act stimulus funds. However, the school district did not receive extra funding over the last two years. The State of Illinois reduced the money they gave to the district. In fact, funding has been approximately level over the last three school years. The federal stimulus money is not available for the next school year. Therefore, if the state only maintains its funding at the same level it had paid to the district over this year and last then there will be a large reduction in the total amount of funding the district receives.

The Good News

Dr. Girard praised the current school board and past school boards for their fiscally sound decisions they have made over the past years. Because of this, the district has built up reserves and a good credit rating. Morrison has recently been issued a Standard & Poor rating of AA-. This rating allowed the district to receive a “phenomenally low” interest rate on the bonds it issued, according to board member Doug Pannier.

Over the last couple of years in anticipation of the budget crunch the board saw coming, they saved money in a variety of methods. Fist they saved about $5 million dollars by making required repairs to the high school heating and air conditioning system instead of purchasing a new system. Last year they eliminated the position of secretary to the superintendent and other cost saving measures.

The district recently sold about $1.5 million in bonds at the low rate of 2.436% interest and due in 6.5 years. These bonds will replace the old bonds that will be paid off shortly. The money was used to make state required repairs to the facilities and other equipment and repairs that were needed to reduce operating costs.

Even with the cuts to their funding, the goal of the school district is to “continue providing an award winning education to our students.” Dr. Girard also gave more good news concerning the district’s academic excellence which is sometimes overshadowed by its athletic achievements.

Last week, the junior high school under the leadership of Principal Darryl Hogue, received the Academic Excellence Award. This prestigious award is given to schools in which 90% or more of the students, including special needs students, meet or exceed academic standards in reading and math for three years in a row. The district has been awarded the Bright Star Award for the past few years. Also, the Morrison High School had the highest ACT scores in the area.

The Problem

It has recently been communicated to Dr. Girard that the cuts in funding for the district from the State of Illinois will likely be more than the half million dollars expected, and could be as much as $1.2 million dollars. Unfortunately, the district will not know until July what the reduction in funds will be. This is long after the budget for the coming school year is set and the programs and teacher’s contracts are in place.

The budget that Dr. Girard is preparing already included some budget balancing measures in an attempt to reduce the shortfall to cover the half million dollars that she already knew about. She actually had come up with things that would cut about $600,000 out of the budget. This will be done through both cost reductions and revenue increases. The goal is to impact the curriculum and the students as little as possible.

There are two areas that might be impacted and those are the WACC or vocational program and the Pre-K program. They are looking at limiting WACC participation to 30 students, cutting tuition costs and cutting the buses needed to one. On the other hand, a CAD program is going to be increased in size at the Morrison Institute of Technology which will allow some of those students cut from WACC to still participate in a vocational program.

The Pre-K program is federally mandated for special needs children, but Morrison has had places for other children. The district is looking at possibly reducing the funds for the program to the grant funded level which would cut the program in half and not allow room for any but the special needs children.

As far as increasing revenues, the district is looking at increasing meal costs, school fees, and event entrance fees. The driver’s ed fee and athletic activity fees will not be increased at this time. However, a student parking fee of $25.00 might be instituted along with some other fees for specific programs.

The superintendent and school board are looking at other things as well. For instance, they have already approved an Early Retirement Option that will be offered to teachers and staff. There are some concerned parents and alumni looking at starting up a Morrison Schools Foundation to help with funding some of the programs, especially the Pre-K program. For a more detailed listing of the cuts and increased fees, they are listed on the Morrison School District web site at www.morrisonschools.org. Click on the “Public Meeting Finance Presentation” and then “Link to the Power Point Presentation PDF”.

Dr. Girard also has asked for the help of the public in Morrison. The district is still seeking public input and suggestions on the matter. There were several people who voiced their concerns during the meeting, including some brave students. The district has asked those concerned to contact their legislators and voice their concerns. The contact information for those officials can be found at the blue link at the top of the Morrison School District web site. In addition, the district is always able to use volunteer help in the schools.

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