Consolidation Conversation Resurfaces in Glen Ellyn

Gov. Pat Quinn’s desire to consolidate and reduce the number of Illinois’ school districts has garnered discussion throughout the state. In Glen Ellyn, district consolidation is already a nearly 30-year-old issue.   

According to Quinn budget spokesperson, Kelly Kraft, Illinois currently has 850 school districts—the third-highest total in the U.S. behind California and Texas. Quinn’s goal, Kraft said, is to get the number down to around 300, and in the process, lower administrative costs and cut back on overhead at a time when the state is struggling to pay the big dollars it owes to its districts.

“The reality is that the state fiscal situation demands consolidation,” Kraft said.

Though the governor’s proposal has not gone public with the particular consolidations that would be made, one would assume it would bring Districts 41 and 89 together with Glenbard District 87 and its other feeder districts in a K-12 district.

District 89 Superintendant Dr. John Perdue said most of his educational career has been spent in K-12 districts. He said there is less instructional focus in those districts, and responsiveness to community issues, if a consolidated K-12 district in Glen Ellyn were created, would decline.

“The organization would increase in size and the service we would provide to the citizen would diminish,” Perdue said.

District 89 school board president Lori Gaspar said Quinn’s widespread consolidation is a good political sound bite.

“It is something that sounds like it makes sense when you hear it on a surface level,” Gaspar said. “It seems to make sense the more students you have, the better a school district can run. But that’s an assumption.”

Gaspar said she doesn’t know where the 300 number came from and that the governor’s plan does not look closely enough at how consolidation would impact the classroom.  

“Boy what a mess would that be. How would you take existing school districts and rip them apart and start over?” she asked.

District 41 board member John Kenwood is not closed to consolidation, but he does oppose to Governor Quinn mandating it.

“If the state has a plan, I’m usually suspect of it,” Kenwood said at the March 20 candidate forum at Glen Crest Middle School. “It may look good overall, but it may not be right for your community.”

Kenwood said there are chances to consolidate in the local network of districts.

“I don’t know if the best way would be at the elementary level or vertically at the high school level,” he said. “If there’s a business case that’s good for our education system, then I’d be fine with doing it.

The idea of horizontal consolidation among Glen Ellyn’s elementary districts was explored in a 1983 study, and according to Gaspar, the findings still hold up.

According to the study’s language, supplied by Gaspar, a 12-member committee studied the pros and cons of consolidating 41 and 89, taking into account finance, administration, curriculum, special and gifted programs, related services, personnel, population and development, and consolidation methods.

Consolidation was ruled feasible based on financial similarities between the two districts, such as average property values for residents, tax rates, and school conditions. The committee found similar administrative structures and educational philosophies fit to merge, as well.  

But the committee decided the two districts’ special and gifted programs would be difficult to reconcile, transportation would need to be increased, and teacher benefits packages would need to be adjusted.

In conclusion, the study said, “no overriding advantages were determined that would … encourage consolidation at this time.”

Consolidation of 41 and 89 today would indeed mean one less superintendant’s salary. Kraft, Quinn’s spokesperson, said more than 250 Illinois superintendants make more than $170,000, the official salary of the governor.

“There are over 850 school superintendants,” Kraft said. “Those are a lot of administrative costs.”

Perdue said the administrative merging of two completely autonomous districts, however, is not so simple.

“While you would save the salary of one superintendant … the likelihood of adding another assistant superintendant or executive assistant is pretty high,” Perdue said. “That’s where some of the savings would be diminished.”

Perdue said boundary adjustments, equalizing staff salary schedules, and equalizing tax rates—District 89 residents have the lowest rate of any Glenbard feeder, he said—are among the reasons not to consolidate. In addition, Perdue said merging is not a good idea identity-wise.

“We’re not necessarily a Glen Ellyn school district,” he said. “We have two buildings in Glen Ellyn proper and three buildings which are not—we have one in Wheaton and two in unincorporated areas. So we are truly a community consolidated school district.”

District 41 director of communication Julie Worthen said the administration hasn’t looked in-depth at the issue.

“It’s not something that one district can do unilaterally,” Worthen said. “It’s something that requires a voter approval and it’s a complex process. What we’ve tried to do is work together [with District 89] when we can.”

Currently, Quinn’s proposal is in its “beginning stages” according to Kraft. She said the first legislative step would be to pass a bill that would create a commission of educators, business leaders, people in the community, and possibly legislators to look in-depth at where consolidation could take place.

Kraft acknowledged that the consolidation would likely have more impact downstate, where it’s illogical for many small districts to pay for certain services that could be combined with neighboring districts.