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School Board News Bulletin
February 2002

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Mandatory consolidation proposal surfaces Leininger tells IASB state must look at restructuring method

State’s financial woes may aggravate dire teacher shortages in Illinois

Third superintendent in three months at ISBE: Vazquez named

Waiver requests, added paperwork due by March 8

ISBE supports more waiver authority on PSAE, holidays

New laws call for posting budgets on Web, longer TIFs

Expert: School boards must decide ‘what’ not ‘how’ about district change

NEWS FROM IASB

Staff notes: IASB welcomes are now in order

IASB 2002 awards program invites names

IASB announces division dinner meeting change

IASB divisions elect six new directors

NEWS HEADLINES

TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

Web sites striving for violence prevention goal share answers

RESEARCH REPORTS

Quality Counts 2002 report gives Illinois an 'F' on equity

Illinois Kids Count 2002 finds gains in quality of life for kids

ILLINOIS SCHOOLS

Chicago District 299 may divide five large high schools

Total of 117 different school referenda now on March ballot

Mandatory consolidation proposal surfaces
Leininger tells IASB state must look at restructuring method

Proponents of school funding reform are likely to propose consolidating hundreds of Illinois school districts, according to former state superintendent of education Robert Leininger, who chairs the governor's task force examining the school funding formula.

That news comes as school enrollment declines and deficits rise in many school districts across the state, and as state leaders search for a fairer way to fund schools.

Leininger has been visiting newspaper editorial boards around the state since last fall, telling them that Illinois cannot ignore restructuring as part of the solution to the funding dilemma.

Leininger said consolidation should be explored in conjunction with his task force's larger attempt to devise a more equitable state funding method. "It's equity and efficiency we need to concentrate on," he said. "We will never be able to distribute state aid to schools fairly as long as we have elementary and high school districts along with unit districts, and different funding formulas (for each)," Leininger said.

"Many high school districts may have six, seven or eight (independent) feeder districts," Leininger continued. "I don't think it is fair to have limited curricular offerings for students in each of these feeder districts. Despite superintendent and teacher shortages, you can find areas where several districts located within a 20-mile radius each have separate chemistry classes enrolling three or four kids. That is a waste of resources.

Consolidation could be accomplished in any number of ways, from combining elementary districts with high school districts to creating minimum district sizes, he said. But regardless of the approach taken, the aim would be to cut costs and create a more logical structure of school districts.

A recent Chicago Tribune story noted that such large-scale consolidation would have to be approved "by the legislature and ultimately voters." But it added, "the State Board of Education could unilaterally encourage mergers with financial incentives."

The Tribune also said "small rural districts, which vehemently fought consolidation in the past, have softened their stance, realizing they cannot compete with larger districts."

The Illinois Association of School Boards opposes any push for state-mandated consolidation, according to Director of Governmental Relations Ben Schwarm. "We oppose consolidation strictly based on enrollment or geographic location, especially if local citizens are not asked to vote to approve it," he said. Schwarm added that IASB does favor locally initiated consolidation of districts if intended to facilitate educational improvement.

When the push for consolidation last surfaced in 1985, state legislators adopted a law to encourage consolidation for high school districts under 500 students, elementary districts with fewer than 1,000, and combined districts of less than 1,500. Under grassroots political pressure they later gutted that law.

Under those guidelines today, however, 517 districts would be encouraged to consolidate. And, according to the Tribune, "an idea getting more play among planners in Springfield now--joining elementary and high school districts into K-12 "unit" districts--would prod 484 districts to rethink their boundaries, including 253 in the Chicago area."

Currently there are 896 school districts in Illinois; only two states have more. The smallest Illinois district enrolls 26 students and the largest enrolls roughly 435,000 students.

Source: "Mergers, long reviled, may be schools' lifeline," Chicago Tribune, January 22, 2002.

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The current shortage of teachers and administrators in Illinois will become dire in the next four years, according to a new state report, and state government's current financial problems could only make it worse.

ISBE estimates Illinois will need to hire 55,000 more teachers, including 33,000 first-time teachers, and 3,500 new administrators over the next four years. That finding was released January 16 in a report titled "2001 Educator Supply and Demand," at the State Board's monthly meeting in Chicago.

At the same time, state leaders attending the governor's education summit January 29 -- one day before the opening session of the General Assembly -- conceded there won't be additional money this year to attract, train or retain good teachers. "But we have to look at what we can do to implement some things, with no money or as little money as possible," said deputy governor for education Hazel Loucks.

Low-cost ideas for easing the shortage apparently gained the greatest momentum at the education summit convened by Gov. George Ryan.

The group had met once before, in November 2001, when delegates divided into thirteen groups. Each group discussed the four categories (recruitment, preparation, retention and professional development) and submitted their initial recommendations. These have been compiled into a report available online at http://www.isbe.state.il.us/summit/initialrec.htm.

Recruitment proposals include:

• Improve salaries and connect to market demands
• Correlate high quality to increased salaries, merit bonuses, etc.
• Provide incentives like college scholarships, loans and repayment
• Provide recruitment incentives to hire teachers for hard-to-staff schools
• Enhance the image of teaching
• Improve working conditions and support
• Create more and better alternative routes to certification
• Remove participation limits for such alternative routes
• Use college teacher prep programs to recruit and hold them responsible for quality
• Where needed, rehire retired teachers without benefit penalties
• Increase standards for entry into teacher preparation
• Establish Future Teachers of America chapters, etc., accessible to all districts

After gathering public input, summit delegates reconvened in Springfield in January to develop the initial draft recommendations into a legislative and budget agenda. The group of 100 leaders--including lawmakers, educators, school board and school administrator representatives, and business people--discussed expanding mentorship programs for teachers, for example, and providing more scholarships to teaching candidates.

But the big-ticket items may have to wait, including financial incentives for new teachers like those offered in California and elsewhere or significant increases in teacher salaries, a proposal that experts said would cost as much as $100 million.

The state's teacher and administrator shortage is caused by many factors, according to ISBE's report. These include a shrinking supply of qualified candidates, a growing number of teachers leaving the profession or retiring, mounting competition for teachers from other states and the private sector, and declining interest in the profession by undergraduates.

Some administrators believe the shortage may be worsened by ongoing ISBE and IBHE efforts to raise teacher standards. "They're raising the requirements on teachers, which on the surface seems like a good thing, but on the other hand, they're not putting any more money into it to attract teachers," said New Berlin C.U. District 16 Superintendent J. Gregory Reynolds. "If you want someone to be of professional quality and perform at higher standards, you need to pay them that much. None of the districts have funding to compete with business."

Deputy governor Loucks noted, however, that federal funding is up and that the national education reform legislation recently signed into law by President Bush provides states with funds to improve teacher quality. And Loucks added that many suggestions that have been made to battle the teacher shortage carry little or no cost, such as boosting screening mechanisms and toughening tests in teaching colleges.

Meanwhile, Loucks said the governor intends to continue to put new state funding for education primarily into general state aid to school districts, as well as "categorical" programs such as special education, and "hold harmless" funding.

Loucks said state universities already are trying to address some of the summit participants' priorities: requiring future teachers to start their student teaching early, and mandating that such students pass a basic-skills test before declaring their college major.

Those are just two parts of a set of new standards outlined in a Board of Higher Education report released at the governor's education summit. Other changes include requiring that would-be teachers pass a test in their specialty area before being allowed to student-teach, and setting a limit on the number of times an individual could flunk basic skills tests when seeking a teachers' license.

Most of these proposed changes in teacher education requirements must go before the governing board of state universities early next month for approval.

Sources: State Journal-Register, "Attendees address teacher shortage," (Springfield), January 29, 2002; and Chicago Tribune, "Education summit hits financial snag," January 29, 2002; and Ben Schwarm, IASB governmental relations staff.

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The State Board of Education accepted the resignation of Ernest R. Wish as interim state superintendent February 1, effective immediately, after Wish declined to end a consulting contract with an outside client that had contracts with both ISBE and the Teachers' Retirement System.

Miscommunication between ISBE board chairman Ronald J. Gidwitz and Wish about the latter's private consultancy led to the issue remaining unresolved, Gidwitz said.

The board appointed its general counsel, Respicio Vazquez, as the new interim state superintendent to serve until a permanent replacement is found.

The board, meanwhile, announced it is moving ahead with the reorganization plans Wish and his management group developed with the board. The second phase of that reorganization was announced February 4, including 35 additional layoffs of unionized employees, effective April 30. Fifteen managers' positions were trimmed January 7 from a State Board staff that had already dropped by 9.6 percent, from more than 800 employees last year to 723 in December.

Vazquez said the reorganization will "reduce unnecessary duplication of work" and allow the ISBE to develop better-targeted statistics for school districts to use in improving academic performance.

But a Springfield union leader said February 5 the ISBE should, for the sake of Illinois students, delay its planned reorganization and the related layoff of unionized employees.

"Our concern is about the services to students in the state of Illinois," said Paula Stadeker, president of Local 3236 of the Illinois Federation of State Office Educators.

Regarding the staff cuts and reorganization, local school officials throughout Illinois are "concerned about disruption of services to schools that this may cause," admitted Brenda Holmes, of the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance. "However, we are certainly committed to work with whomever the state superintendent is."

Source: Illinois State Board of Education, press release, February 1, 2002.

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The Illinois State Board of Education has announced the deadline for submitting requests for waivers involving legislative action is March 8, 2002. ISBE has imposed requirements for a brief description of the public hearing wherein testimony was taken on the waiver proposal, and a copy of the public notices.

In addition, school districts seeking a waiver of physical education requirements now are being asked to submit evidence of their students' achievement of the physical education standards. This information will be analyzed after several reporting cycles, according to ISBE, to determine the impact such waivers have on achievement of the standards.

The mailing address for waiver requests is: Research Division, Attn: Winnie Tuthill, ISBE, 100 North First Street S-284, Springfield, IL 62777-0001.

Districts applying for this round of waivers must use the application form dated May 2001. For more information or to get a current application form visit the ISBE Web site at http://www.isbe.net/isbewaivers/default1.html, or phone Winnie Tuthill at 217/782-3950 or e-mail wtuthill@ isbe.net.

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A waiver report ISBE submitted to the state legislature in January shows 744 school districts have received approval to waive or modify requirements contained in state laws or regulations since such waivers were first authorized in 1995. IASB was a key proponent of the 1995 waiver law.

According to ISBE, 83.5 percent of districts statewide have applied for waivers or modifications of various state requirements under the waiver law. School holiday requirements prompted the largest increase in both the number of waiver petitions approved and in first-time applicants. Last year, school districts submitted 290 holiday waiver requests, all of which were approved. During the past five years, nearly 66 percent of all school districts in the state have received waiver relief from state holiday requirements.

Due to the large number of districts that have received permission to use these holidays for other purposes, the ISBE is recommending the law be changed to give school districts local flexibility. ISBE suggests districts could unilaterally waive a given holiday as long as they ensure that students are taught about the individuals being honored by that holiday.

During spring 2001, 45 districts received approval to shorten the school day for all or some students in order to appropriately administer the Prairie State Achievement Examination. These districts count these shortened days among the 176 pupil attendance days required by law because they had accumulated or "banked" sufficient time beyond the five-clock-hour day before the test days. The banked time was used on the shortened test day to meet the five-clock-hour requirement.

The ISBE is recommending that legislation be considered that would provide school districts certain flexibility on PSAE testing days but still allow them to count these days for purposes of the required school calendar.

During the past six months, 43 physical education requests were granted; 32 were renewals and 11 were first-time requests. To date, 195 school districts or 21.9 percent have received permission to alter the daily PE requirement. Of the 353 petitions granted, the General Assembly approved 247 and ISBE approved 106 that sought to offer the same amount of total time for PE, but on less than a daily basis. The report is not recommending any legislative changes to the daily physical education mandate or waiver law concerning these types of requests.

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New laws affecting schools cover myriad topics, from allowing Tax Increment Financing districts to remain in effect up to 35 years in financially distressed cities, to requiring that school districts post their current annual budget on their Web sites.

Both the TIF extension law (P.A. 92-406), and the budget posting law (P.A. 92-438) took effect in January 2002.

Other significant new statutes taking effect in January included provisions:

• requiring school boards to include provisions in the district's student discipline policy to deal with students with a history of aggressive behavior, including bullying (P.A. 92-260);
• allowing district policies to require that students expelled or suspended from other districts must complete their suspension or expulsion before being admitted into school or placed into an alternative program (P.A. 92-64);
• permitting a district to lease a school building or to complete a building with funds received from school construction grants without going to referendum (P.A. 92-127); and
• requiring that schools receive final reports on alleged child abuse or neglect within 10 days after DCFS completes the investigation; schools must keep such reports confidential, but shall include them in the child's school student record (P.A. 92-295).

Source: Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance, New School Laws 2002, January 2002.

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Organizational change expert W. Patrick Dolan explained his views and his recommendations for implementing "site-based management" to IASB staff at a retreat January 15 at Starved Rock State Park.

Members of the IASB governance group met with Dolan, who has written a book, Restructuring Our Schools, on his experiences with labor-management issues. After more than 20 years in the private sector, Dolan has turned his attention to school districts. He has worked with more than 200 nationwide and uses some of their experiences as anecdotes and appendixes in his book.

Dolan says real collaboration requires school boards to decide the "what" but to give up on the "how." He also believes schools need to bring parents and students into the decision-making process, and to stop referring to them as customers.

"The public does not view itself as a customer. They have no choice and they pay, regardless of how well the school or their child performs," he said.

There are five principles to the change process, he added, which must be understood before all else: 1) There is always a pre-existing structure; 2) All parts of any system are organically connected; 3)The system resists change fundamentally; 4) Each organization has unique characteristics based on a history of its relationships and leadership; and 5) Each organization also has common characteristics, which is the proper place to begin.

The governance group, a committee comprised of various IASB departments that gathers information and studies the organization and structure of school board work, also asked Dolan a variety of questions and challenged some of his positions.

Dolan is currently working with the Illinois Learning Partnership on a project for increasing student achievement. An update on that group's work will appear in the March-April issue of The Illinois School Board Journal.

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The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) voted February 5 to toughen state teacher certification tests. Aspiring teachers will have to pass a state test in their teaching specialty areas before being admitted to any teacher-prep program and pass a content exam before they can become student teachers. The changes came in response to a Chicago Sun-Times newspaper series that found thousands of licensed and practicing teachers failed to pass state tests of knowledge of their subject matter (February 5, Bloomington Pantagraph) ... To comply with a new state law, Elgin District U-46 reviewed a revised policy February 4 incorporating the district's position on bullying. The law (P.A. 92-260), which took effect January 1, requires every district to create a policy to deal with students who are bullies or potential bullies (February 5, Daily Herald)

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NEWS FROM IASB

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Two recent e-mail messages received by all staff at IASB definitely qualify as worthy of note. A January 14 note from Connie Crowder stated: "Deanna Sullivan will not be in the office today...she had a baby boy, 9 pounds, 3 ounces, 22 inches long. His name: Lochlan Terrance Sullivan. She and the baby are doing great."

And a January 22 message e-mailed from Bob Morenz read, in part: "Reed McCann has agreed to full-time employment with IASB, working in the business office."

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IASB annually recognizes people, agencies, corporations or non-governmental organizations whose actions have contributed to excellence in education for Illinois children. Recognition is provided through the Harold P. Seamon Award for Distinguished Service to public education.

Recipients must have done one or more of the following: 1) display exceptional service and commitment to public education in Illinois; 2) provide innovative and creative approaches to meeting the challenges facing public education; 3) enhance local, lay control of, and responsibility for, the governance of public education by school boards.

The activity for which the nomination is made should extend statewide or have an impact on a large region of the state -- not just a district-wide impact. Only one such award may be given annually. The deadline to submit nominations is April 15. Outstanding nominees are sought from all walks of life -- not just from the realm of professional education. The award is presented at a general session of the annual conference in November. Past winners include the Chicago Tribune, Harold P. Seamon, Brian Braun, and Bud Thompson.

IASB Honorary Memberships for Exceptional Service are given to people who have rendered distinguished service to the Association or to public education generally. These contributions may be district-wide or regional. Up to three awards may be given each year. They are presented at division meetings and other local gatherings.

Submit a brief letter of nomination for either award to the awards committee liaison. Deadline for submissions is April 15 for both awards. Current school board members and IASB staff are not eligible to receive IASB awards.

In addition, IASB offers the IASB Service Award to an individual who: 1) has given 25 years of service (not necessarily continuous) to schools and children; 2) has had a positive impact through that service; and 3) has had a close affiliation with and been of direct service to schools, either as an employee or volunteer.

Service Awards are issued to as many people as meet the requirements to receive them. They are presented at division meetings and other local gatherings. There is no deadline for submission of names.

Contact: IASB Awards Committee Liaison, 2921 Baker Drive, Springfield, IL 62703-5929, phone IASB, ext. 1139, fax 217/753-2485.

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There has been one change from the list of scheduled upcoming IASB division spring dinner meetings posted in the January Newsbulletin: the Lake County Division will meet April 18, rather than the date listed, at Tech Center, Grayslake.

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Many IASB divisions now are boasting new officers, including new directors elected since February 2001 in six divisions. They are: Debora McCleary, of Coal City C.U. District 1, the new director of the Three Rivers Division; Brian Waitkus, of LaSalle Elementary District 122, new director of the Starved Rock Division.

Others who have recently been elected IASB directors include: Cheryl Jackson, of Bloomington District 87, in the Corn Belt Division; Thomas Hannigan, of Mundelein C.H.S.D. 120, in the Lake Division; Lowell Beggs, of Amboy C.U. District 272, in the Northwest Division; and Fred Clatfelter, of Hutsonville C.U. District 1, in the Wabash Valley Division of IASB.

Others new to division officer posts this year are:

"The Illinois General Assembly re-convened this week as both the House and Senate returned to Springfield. Members tackled a light workload as the Senate only had a couple of committees scheduled and the House of Representatives cancelled many of the committees that were set to meet."

The above information is contained on the IASB Web site (look for "Alliance Legislative Report," under "What's New?" at the top of the home page) at http://www.iasb.com. Information about legislative activity of the Illinois School Management Alliance is updated regularly under that heading on the Association's Web site.

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TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

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Various organizations across the nation are trying to find and share solutions to the rare but frightening problem of school violence. The following Web sites offer additional information:

• www.keepschoolssafe.com
• www.ncsu.edu/cpsv/save.html
• www.ncsu.edu/cpsv
• www.nssc1.org
• www.peacebuilders.com

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RESEARCH REPORTS

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A recently released national Quality Counts 2002: Building Blocks for Success report examined what states are doing in education, and gave Illinois an "F" on providing resources equitably and a "C+" for adequacy of educational resources. The sixth annual supplement to Education Week -- a respected national newspaper for educators -- offers state-by-state comparisons of education quality based primarily on federal statistics.

Source: Education Week, "Quality Counts 2002: Building Blocks for Success," January 10, 2002.

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The growing child population (ages 17 and under) in Illinois has seen improvements in quality of life in recent years, according to the "Illinois Kids Count 2002" report released January 14. Findings include a big jump in health insurance coverage for low-income children and a drop in the number of children and adults receiving welfare.

On education, the report said state legislators "must address the lopsided school funding system during the spring 2002 session. Under the current method, districts with a scant property tax base spend as little as $4,560 per student, while richer districts can spend upwards of $14,000 per student. Lawmakers should carefully consider the forthcoming recommendations from the Education Financing Advisory Board, which has been examining school funding for more than a year."

Source: Voices for Illinois Children, Illinois Kids Count 2002, January 2002.

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ILLINOIS SCHOOLS

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Looking to reorganize its least effective schools, Chicago District 299 has nominated five high schools to possibly be divided up into a number of smaller schools that would operate independently within their existing buildings. Source: Chicago Tribune, "City may break up five ailing high schools," January 23, 2002.

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School districts around the state have placed 117 different school referendum questions on the March 19 primary ballot, including 114 finance questions, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. The agency's unofficial estimate includes 53 tax questions, 61 bond issues, two miscellaneous proposals, and one advisory referendum.

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IASB ARCHIVES HOME

Illinois Association of School Boards

2921 Baker Drive
Springfield, Illinois 62703