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Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2001

Finances, security concerns heighten following terrorism

by Linda Dawson

Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor.

Although he was just into his teens, Roy Midgett remembers the attack on Pearl Harbor. He remembers the way it heightened patriotism and the need to build up the U.S. military, just like the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have done.

But for Midgett, board president at Robinson Community Unit School District 2 and the Wabash Valley division's member of the IASB Board of Directors, that's where the similarity ends.

"At Pearl Harbor, it was another country attacking our country. At Pearl Harbor, they bombed the Army and the Navy," he said. "This attack (on the World Trade Center) was on innocent people, even some of their own countrymen."

While he doesn't see schools as being immediate victims of terrorism, he does think there will be a future financial impact on Illinois districts. Three executive directors of the state's school organizations share Midgett's assessment.

"I think the financial impact could be a decrease in state revenues due to O'Hare being closed and the reduction in flights," said Michael Johnson, executive director of IASB. This will have a snowball impact on other businesses and ultimately state revenue available for school funding, he added.

"In the short run, the effect on finances could be devastating," added Walt Warfield, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators. Revenue projections that already were going to decline because of the economic downturn look to be even steeper still.

According to the Illinois Bureau of the Budget's summary for fourth quarter 2001, revenues were $124 million below the estimates published in the quarterly report issued in May. While it may be too soon to adequately predict the overall financial impact, Warfield says some very tough decisions may need to be made regarding the 2002-03 school year.

The negative impact could also affect technology and school construction, he said, in addition to regular programs that are in need of money. But as problematic as school finances based on taxes may be, the implications also could be far reaching in terms of other types of support districts receive from parents and businesses -- such as fund-raisers and in-kind donations -- not to mention an increase in problems associated with low-income children not being as well-equipped to learn when they come to class.

"But I'm totally convinced this financial impact will be short-term," Warfield said. "We'll bounce back. It may take extra work (to make ends meet on the budget), but we'll find a way."

In addition to looking at problems with funding, districts also will focus on security, according to David Turner, executive director of the Illinois Principals Association. "People will take a closer look at their crisis evaluation and evacuation plans. This will be especially critical for urban, downtown areas and anyone close to something that looks like a potential target."

Johnson said most school districts have ample security measures in place, but some may look toward expanding those measures, as more people begin to understand new threats to safety. And, he said, school board policies, especially those criticized in the media for coming down too hard on students for bringing seemingly innocuous items to school, may be better understood now that airlines are confiscating nail clippers.

One of the more interesting commentaries Warfield said he heard after the attacks was a reporter who attributed the successful evacuation by many to training they remembered from school. "They probably never went through an evacuation drill at the World Trade Center," he said, "and yet they reverted to their school days where they were taught to evacuate quietly and in an orderly manner."

Another victim of increased security will be student travel. Travel with groups is never easy, but it will be more difficult, at best, for a while. "I'm not sure I'd be too excited about taking a band to the Rose Bowl this year," Turner said.

Beyond the dollars and cents impact and heightened security awareness, schools will have to meet extraordinary emotional needs of students.

In New York, where emotions and dealing with the immediate devastation may not have given way as yet to long-term impact assessments, school board members are being assured by their state association that they have been doing right by their students.

"Even before the dust settled, school officials prepared to face the emotional needs of their school communities," the New York State School Board Association said on its Web site. Teachers seemed to know instinctively how much to let students watch what was going on during the September 11 attack and when to pull the plug. In the days that followed, others figured out how to weave discussions of the attack into their subject areas.

NYSSBA said its state's schools were better prepared to deal with a crisis situation because of New York's new Safe Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE) law that went into effect July 1. It required school districts to formulate "comprehensive school safety plans, emergency response teams and crisis plans." It also included a provision to teach character education and community service.

"We need to make sure our children are taught that cultural, ethnic and religious diversity is a cornerstone of what makes us great," Warfield said. "They need to know that diversity is something that should be embraced, by the way we teach and the way we act."

But even more importantly, according to Turner, schools need to help children understand that, despite what has happened and what we might face, this country has a great future and they're part of it.

"I remember talking to kids as a building principal during the height of the Cold War," Turner said. "A lot of kids had a fatalistic attitude and had given up on their lives. We need to prevent that here and in the future. And we need to make sure they see the importance of school in their lives and in the shaping of that future."

With the terrorist attacks and financial uncertainty, people are "down" right now, he said. "We can't let that feeling prevail. If we take care of that, other kinds of things will take care of themselves."