A short look at some Crystal Lake High School District 155 statistics from 2006 through 2014.
Selected District 155 statistics from 2004 through 2014.
You can learn a lot if you look at the Statistical Section of District 155’s annual report.
Enrollment in District 155 was 6,733 in the 2014 school year.
The last time it was this low was 2006.
In 2006, total direct expenditures were $67.6 million; in 2014, expenditures were $95.8 million.
That’s an increase of $28 million in eight years or 41%!
The cost per pupil increased from $9,934 to $14,210 or 43%.
During this same period, the Consumer Price Index increased 17.6%.
If the cost per pupil had risen by the same amount as the CPI, expenditures in 2014 would have been $79.5 million or $16.2 million less than the actual.
If the cost per pupil had risen by CPI each year, the AGGREGATE cost over those eight years would have been $93 million LOWER.
While enrollment was declining, the number of teachers increased by 11, the number of administrators increased by 5, and total staff increased by 27.
We had one Assistant Superintendent in 2006; we now have three.
So it takes more administrators and more teachers to teach fewer students and the costs have ballooned.
You can be sure the costs rose again in fiscal 2015.
This is the price we pay directly (local property tax) and indirectly (state and federal taxes) to accommodate incompetent instructors and administrators who are supervised by elected school boards which are mainly comprised of former teachers, relatives of teachers, and others who have zero interest in reducing the costs.
We have actively attempted to recruit people to run for school boards and the most common objection is “I have no children in school”.
Has our society become so ‘dumbed down’ that people think of school boards as PTAs?
Part of the reason for the increase in administration costs was NCLB which is now replaced with an even worse ECAA.
Unless the federal department of education is eliminated and Illinois installs public pension reforms, school taxes will continue to increase.
As long as we permit unions and government bureaucrats to use our children as hostages, strikes will always result in higher property taxes.
Now, to make matters even worse we are instituting a network of taxpayer funded childcare which will result in ‘cradle to grave’ government control of all residents.
In Illinois this is being supported by both Democrats and many Republicans such as Wheeler, Althoff and McConnaughay.
I would like one school district to conduct a study which would look at eliminating all federal government funding and eliminating all jobs, tasks, reporting required to comply with the requirements that go along with that federal funding.
If Palatine school district had not taken federal funding, they could have handled the transgender issue locally without being intimidated by the out of control DOJ.
This high school district still does not videotape board meetings and post them on its website indefinitely so taxpayers can watch board meetings online.
Maybe one reason is they do not want scrutiny and accountability for the $28 million in increased spending.
Two solutions to force rational budgets by school boards:
1. Property tax RATE caps as in Indiana (1% of home value), California (1% of home value) Massachusetts (2.5% of home value) (etcetera)..
2. Every inch of property in the County should be in a tif district.
Rather than diverting tif money to politicians to distribute to developers without regulation, scrutiny, or oversight: tif money collections should be redistributed to property taxpayers pro rata.
Then, propertytaxpaying owners can risk their own money to develop their own property, if they so desire.
These costs do not include the State contribution to the Teachers Retirement System of Illinois (TRS) pension fund.
The state contribution to TRS should be broken dow by school district every year.
Then the true cost to educate a child will become more apparent.
The hiked salaries and benefits at the local and state level in the monopoly public school system in exchange for supporting politicians has created an uncompetitive, unsustainable, dysfunctional mess.
Maybe it’s time to consolidate to 3 high schools.
Numbers are down and will continue to go down.
Maybe it’s time for Central to close its doors.
The upkeep on the old building has to be tremendous compared to the new buildings.
Last time I was in the auditorium, the armrest fell off the chair.
Moved rows and the same thing happened.
I would add to Susan’s points:
No borrowing even short term, raising levies, or raising tax rates without a 2/3 voter approval.