Figures for Crystal Lake Central, CL South, Prairie Ridge and Cary-Grove High Schools for the most recent three years:
District 155 Graduates Declining
Figures for Crystal Lake Central, CL South, Prairie Ridge and Cary-Grove High Schools for the most recent three years:
Uh, is this due to lower enrollment or lower graduation rates?
Illegal alien brats not graduating.
Need a lot more data/information to understand what might be going on.
This is due to families with school age children fleeing Illinois, simple as that.
Honest Abe is Honest again!
The declining enrollment is due to families fleeing Illinois.
Yet D155 still spends and spends and spends and spends and spends.
In 2019, per their PhD accountant (yes – he has a PhD), the district had more money in reserve than was allowed by law, two more buildings than physically needed, and yet still decided to spend money on capital improvements for unneeded buildings and raise the tax levy the max amount possible.
It wasn’t illegal per say – but it sure as hell wasn’t ethical.
On top of that, despite six straight years of declining enrollment, the district employs TWICE the amount of administrative staff that they did before the decline began.
Is this about the kids or about their power?
When a district needs multiple deans with $200k salaries – who are they focused on?
Can’t one CEO run this district?
How incompetent are these people?
(That’s a rhetorical question – my apologies).
We just don’t understand how “it works”, they say.
We can’t just change things, they say.
We receive 20% of annual funding from fed and state, so we have to follow their lead, they say.
Here’s something for D155 board members to understand:
You have pushed the public to their breaking point with your out of control spending, your CRT, your vaccine push, your mask push, the suffering you have foisted onto our kids to keep your union happy, and your lack of common sense.
Remember your PANSY school board president at the last board meeting? Remember why he needed a “break”?
If you think that was bad, just wait.
This isn’t over.
Not by a long shot.
I can tell you one thing.
That July 28 board meeting better feel like I’m sitting in DALLAS or TAMPA.
It better be a breath of fresh air.
I don’t know if anyone here has ever heard of or read the works of arguably the first of the old timey Muckrackers.
His work was about Public Corruption but he adroitly framed his articles not like the occasional idiotic exposes you see today.
He tried to make the Public face up to it’s complicity in allowing it to continue.
He called it “shameless citizenship”. Illinois, no?
What are some details of D155 over the last few years?
Student totals starting each school year, student totals at the end of each school year. How many teachers each school year?
How many other employees of the District –
Management/Administrative, building maintenance/janitors, lunchroom, etc.
What was the total salary expense for everyone in D155?
What was the teacher total expense?
What was the OVERALL COST per student in each school year?
What was the COST per student of just the total teachers?
Does anybody know?
Is all of this considered public information and available at some school district or government website?
All the details about enrollment, personnel, spending, and debt are available in CAFRs, ISBE annual reports, and official statements of bonded debt at emma.msrb.org
Cost per pupil relative to
National peer spending is available at government education finance website nces.ed.gov
If there is “excess accumulation” of more than 200- 290% of last year’s expenditure, taxpayers may file a tax objection lawsuit.
Everyone who ignores this obscene spending beyond the means of the community is complicit in destroying the community.
Bred Winner, here is some statistical info on D-155 historical deficits, enrollment, and salary & benefits:
Surplus/(Deficit)
FY21 ($2.2 million)
FY20 ($6.8 million)
FY19 ($5.1 million)
FY18 $0.0
FY17 ($5.2 million)
FY16 ($9.0 million)
FY15 ($5.5 million)
FY14 ($10.0 million) *adjusted for bonds issued
FY13 ($5.6 million)
9 Year Total Deficit of $49.4 million.
Enrollment
FY21 Unknown
FY20 5,791
FY19 5,985
FY18 6,113
FY17 6,257
FY16 6,493
FY15 6,598
FY14 6,694
FY13 6,850
Salaries & Benefits
FY21 $77.0 million
FY20 $73.9
FY19 $73.2
FY18 $72.9
FY17 $74.7
FY16 $74.0
FY15 $71.2
FY14 $68.4
FY13 $68.5
Note: Salaries do not include the Transportation Dept as they are D-47 employees and is charged back as a “Purchased Service” to D-155.
Coffey – thank you. I could have made my argument stronger with your data – I was writing from memory.
So we know of SEVEN years of declining enrollment and SEVEN years of increased salaries.
Per above, 2013 cost per pupil was $10,000.
In 2020 it had risen to $12,761
Note that very few employees of the district lost their jobs last year.
While we watched our friends and neighbors lose everything, they all collected a check – that we wrote.
Why are there so few concerned about this??
Thanks for info Coffey. What can be done to lower the cost per student? What are some POSITIONS in administration that can be consolidated or eliminated? Does this District or others in McHenry County have administration positions that have no proven value to outcomes of students such as diversity, equity, inclusion?
Bred, it is only getting worse.
The FY22 Budget on display calls for another $8.3 million deficit for this year, driven by more capital spending and
Salaries & Benefits going up 4.5% to $80.5 million from last year’s $77.0 million.
Enrollment will continue its decline as each successive incoming freshman class is smaller than the on preceding it.
Enrollment in each building is now running about the size of an average junior high school building.
Somehow, the district spends $3.6 million just on Salaries/Benefits for Operations & Maintenance staff for just 4
buildings (D26 spends $150k for 5 buildings).
As to fixing the cost structure of the district, you would have to have board members with a desire and the financial
acumen to fix it.
The IQs are going down, too.
Congrats to D155 board for taking the first step towards liberty.
Masks will be optional this year.
Until they’re not apparently?
You seemed to want the public to know that authoritarianism can step in at any time.
Just say NO – it feels better.
Like you’re in control of your own life. Like maybe you were born with certain, unalienable rights.
You should try it.
Seriously though – don’t back down.
It won’t go well.
Union backed board with many board members having family employed in D155 – so no surprise.