Ridgeland District 122 Looks to the Future

Devising a new academic year calendar, switching from neighborhood schools to "grade centers," seeking a referendum to help pay operating costs and improving communications with taxpayers are among the long-term goals proposed by a group of parents, teachers and staff for Ridgeland School District 122.

A group of 30 people spent all day Saturday in the main dining room at Stony Creek Golf Course in Oak Lawn formulating goals at a workshop facilitated by the Illinois Association of School Boards.

District Superintendent Tom Smyth, who also attended the meeting, said he would present the goals and notes from the workshop to the full school board early in 2011. It will then be up to the board to evaluate the goals, set priorities and determine how to implement and pay for whatever they decide to do.

"Some of these things have a lot of cost associated with them," Smyth said, "so they may not go through."

The goals that came out of the workshop were based on a three-year time horizon. Workshop attendees decided that, based on fiscal uncertainties, any longer-range plans didn't make sense. Indeed, Eric Trimberger, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, on Saturday presented figures that show District 122 sliding in to deficit spending starting in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. The district's budget has been balanced since 2006-2007, he said, although this year that balance came courtesy of $800,000 in federal stimulus money.

The R-word

The deficit is expected to be about $700,000 next year, based on current projections. That figure increases to between $1.6 million and $1.7 million the next two to three years and $2.3 million in five years. As a result, the district's roughly $9.8 million fund balance is expected to dwindle to about $1.9 million by the 2015-2016 fiscal year.

That leaves District 122 with a few options in terms of solidifying its funding footing. It could ask taxpayers for more money by putting a bond referendum on the ballot, something the working group suggested pursuing in early 2013. A referendum could raise $5 million or so for working cash, however the odds of such a referendum passing if the current anti-tax climate continues seem slim.

The district could apply for tax anticipation warrants, which provide short-term interim funding based on expected tax revenue. The district could also further trim its budget. Previous budget cuts included the elimination of band, music and art classes; putting more students in classrooms; and freezing administrators' salaries.

Trimberger said the lack of clarity in terms of future revenue makes planning difficult. "We don't know what's going to happen in 12 to 18 months, let alone five years," he said.

The biggest revenue challenge District 122 and other school districts face today is the appeal of assessments by taxpayers, especially businesses. "They over-assess businesses and the businesses appeal and they win, as they should," Trimberger said. He added that the district has probably lost close to $5 million in tax revenue due to successful assessment appeals.

The cloudy revenue picture aside, long-range planning like that done on Saturday is important for the district, said District 122 school board president Daniel Sodaro. "The end game is to come up with a plan, get everyone on the same page and work together toward building a better school district," he said.

"Great, good, needs immediate attention"

Sodaro said as important as the planning itself is the process District 122 used to run its Saturday workshop. Groups of parents, teachers, staff and administrators worked together at tables of five to identify what was "great" about the district, what was "good" and what areas need "immediate attention." The groups then worked to devise goals to address the areas in need of attention.

Each of the groups identified District 122 staff as being something great about the district, and most also identified facilities. The district recently completed a multi-year building project that saw the renovation of all four elementary schools, the middle school and the district offices.

Among the "good" was the district's implementation of programs to deal with student behavioral issues and assist students who struggle academically. Most of the group said they appreciated the district's technology achievements, which were set as a priority at a previous long-range planning meeting.

Several issues came to the fore as needing immediate attention. Full-day kindergarten, communicating with the community, parental involvement and class sizes were among those most often mentioned.

District Technology Coordinator Barry Zakes highlighted the communication and parental involvement issues as he presented the results of his group's discussion about the "Great," "Good," "Needs Immediate Attention" issues. "There are so many things competing for time and attention, not just of parents but the community as a whole," he said. "And they pay the bills."

Long-range goals

At the end of the day, Smyth said, the groups settled on some broad goals, each with its own set of action steps. The district should:

• Demonstrate fiscal responsibility by maintaining a balanced budget and a 25-percent fund balance at the end of each fiscal year.
• Seek a referendum in the spring of 2013 to raise money to help pay for operating costs.
• Cut spending.
• Start discussing grade centers—grouping students by grade rather than geography as the neighborhood school setup does now.
• Develop an alternative calendar. Smyth said the focus here is on shortening the long summer break.
• Integrate technology further into the curriculum.
• Align the curriculum with "common core standards." Included in that goal was evaluating and improving the current English Language Learners program. One key focus of discussion in that vein was better addressing the needs of the growing number of Arabic students. The group also said it wanted to look at ways to better serve gifted students and help struggling students in language arts.
• Improve communication with community "stakeholders" by continuing the district newsletter, designating a district public relations person, submitting positive stories to newspapers and other news outlets, improving notification of school board meetings, erecting a district marquee to publicize events, bumping up the amount of news about the district on local cable channels, improving communication with staff about board meeting summaries and sending post cards to community members highlighting school district news.
• Improving collaboration among staff and between staff and parents.

Smyth said he would put all this information into a brochure and give it to the school board. "There is no way we will get all this done in the first year," he said.