Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
April 19, 2024
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A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
You commenters have outdone yourselves on this one. They need to be collected into a further article. Thanks.
The plot thickens…HB 3052 attempts to consolidate Ford Heights and Chicago Heights school districts. Their fact sheet is a comical glance into public sector reasoning:
http://www.fordheights169.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/House-Bill-3052-Website-revised.pdf
It’s extremely unusual for a State Rep or Senator to introduce legislation to consolidate school districts. There is an established process for consolidating school district that includes a study, and taxpayers in both districts agreeing to do so via a referendum. For school districts that are failing, there is an established process for the state to take over the school district. On of the first analysis is to look at what is almost always the single biggest cost of a school district, which is teachers, which means looking at the teacher collective bargaining agreement (cba). The current Ford Height teacher… Read more »
A noteworthy aspect of suburban Cook County school districts is that only one of them is a unit school district.
Elmwood Park Elementary District 85 & Elmwood Park High School District 232 consolidated in 1967 to form Elmwood Park CUSD 401, which to this day remains the only unit school district in suburban Cook County.
The other school district in Cook County are either high school districts, or elementary school districts.
Ford Heights SD 169 has only 450 students spread over 2 schools, yet each school has a principal and assistant principal. Considering the district is running 60% over budget, they might want to layoff the assistant principals and re-negotiate the superintendent’s $260,000 salary (that’s including a $29,000 annuity).
http://www.fordheights169.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Salary-Benefits-2015-2016.pdf
http://www.fordheights169.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Fiscal-Year-2016-2017-Budget.pdf
Holy crap. Good work, nixit.
The Superintendent of Ford Heights earned $299K in pensionable income in 2015, and $290K in 2014, per the Open the Books widget. He may have earned more than that if there is any non pensionable income. Why the difference from the previously reported $260K? In a nutshell, it’s impossible to derive actual total pensionable and non pensionable income from looking at the state mandated compensation report on the school district website. The URL in the comment points to the state mandated compensation report on the school district website for school year 2016 which lists: – $230K base. – 45 vacation… Read more »
By the way, if the Superintendent stays at $300K pensionable income salary through retirement, his beginning pension will be $225K, and with a 3% COLA, the annual pension will double 24 years into retirement, at which time the Superintendent would have received $8.2M in pension payments.
The Superintendent will likely recoup his lifetime employee contributions to the pension system within his first two years of retirement.
Meaning, less than a $456K investment would have returned $8.2M.