Of all the problems that school districts face in Illinois, one of the most challenging is having to cope with too much growth too fast. It is a particular problem in McHenry County, the fastest-growing county in the state, and most particularly for smaller districts with limited resources and tax bases.
When new classrooms are filled as soon as they are built, something must be done. For three districts–Spring Grove Grade School District 11, Richmond Grade School District 13 and Richmond-Burton High School District 157–that something is to consider a refreshing approach: If you can’t find a solution alone, pool your resources and find one together.
They have a joint committee of school board members and citizens at work studying a merger of the three single-school districts into one unit district–an unusual tactic, since most consolidations are undertaken to cope with declining enrollment and surplus schools. If they can pull it off, it will be an experiment worth watching and imitating that eventually could benefit all their taxpayers.
Two of the districts recently completed additions that already are at capacity; District 13 has an addition under way and has had to resort to mobile classrooms in the interim. All three have limited bonding authority for new construction because of their small size. And still the new students come.
The ultimate goal is to absorb the growth by building a new high school and using the existing schools more efficiently–converting the high school into a middle school and the grade schools into K-5 instead of K-8. Consolidating would make it easier by doubling their borrowing power to $16 million, spreading the tax base to help support it and concentrating efforts on one building project instead of three.
Additionally, a unit district offers potential cost savings with one superintendent and central administration, one school board and economies of scale in such things as purchasing and maintenance. In that, this also is an unselfish approach, because some jobs and authority will disappear.
That is something voters should keep in mind if the idea ever goes to referendum, as it must for final approval. Though the proposal would have to be sold on its merits, there is no discounting the merit of the rare, cooperative effort that has brought it this far.
