Girard / Carlinville Reorganization Study

GIRARD / CARLINVILLE REORGANIZATION STUDY

Several months ago, the Girard Board of Education voted to conduct a reorganization study with the Carlinville School District, and contracted Dr. William Phillips, Dr. Scott Day, and Dr. Leonard Bogle, University of Illinois, Springfield professors, to conduct the study. This process began as a result of both school districts exploring new ways to offer high quality educational programs for the children of our communities in a fiscally responsible manner.  With the standards set forth by the No Child Left Behind legislation, a high school must offer strong college prep programs.  However, students also need an opportunity to enroll in career and technical (vocational) courses and fine arts programs.

Over the past several years, this has become more and more difficult.  In an era of declining economic support from the state and federal government, local communities have been forced to either reduce important educational programs or seek local funds to maintain those programs.  In addition to the economic challenges, districts are faced with the demographic changes that impact our communities.  

In late June, the Boards of Education for Carlinville CUSD #1 and Girard CUSD #3 held the second public meeting concerning school district reorganization.  At this meeting, Dr. Phillips, Dr. Day and Dr. Bogle reported on the feasibility study.  This was a very extensive study that took several months to complete.  In the end, the study is outlined in over 280 pages.  If you would like to read the entire study, it will soon be available for public review in the Girard Media Center.  By August 15, the Executive Summary of the Reorganization Feasibility Study for Carlinville CUSD #1 and Girard CUSD #3, along with the Power Point presentation used at the meeting, will be posted on the new Girard School District web site at www.girardschools.org.  These documents, prepared by the professionals conducting the study, do a nice job of providing the important information on a possible reorganization.  They received their information by visiting the districts, reviewing thousands of pages of documents that they requested from the two districts and researching with the Illinois State Board of Education.

So what did the feasibility study find?  First of all, the authors of the study recommended that the two districts merge. Currently, in the State of Illinois, there are eleven procedures for reorganizing school districts.  The method recommended by the feasibility study was the Article 11-A-3 method.  Under this method, a required referendum must pass with a simple majority of votes in both districts.  If the referendum is successful, both present boards of education would be abolished and a new Board of Education would be elected to lead the newly formed district.

The Feasibility Team recommended that both Girard and Carlinville maintain their present Pre-K through Eighth Grade classes in their local communities. Further, the Feasibility Team recommended that the high school for the new district be located in the present location of Carlinville High School.  This will require the transportation of the high school students living in Girard to Carlinville.  The Feasibility Team believes that would require three to four busses a day.  Much of this cost would be reimbursed by the State of Illinois.  The potential merger would result in a high school student population of 667.  By the 2011-2012 school year, the student population of the new high school is projected to be at 584.  A high school with a population of over 500 would also enable a district to maintain an extra-curricular program that offers a variety.

It is important to note that the Feasibility Team also studied the impact of reorganization on the curriculum of the Pre-K through Eighth Grade students of both districts.  While the students would remain physically in the same locations, a newly formed district would need to work extremely hard on curriculum alignment.  This process would be both a challenge and a gift.  While it would require a great deal of work to organize curriculum, the focus on instruction that it would require would bring about benefits for children in both communities.

The Feasibility Team also pointed out that the teachers presently employed by the district would be needed even if the proposed merger takes place.  As the Feasibility Team looked over the upcoming retirements facing both districts, they predict that there would be no loss of jobs among those presently employed.  The newly formed district would require only one superintendent.    

The State of Illinois has been promoting school reorganization for several years. At the present time, the State offers four financial incentives for districts to merge.  The first incentive is the General State Aid Equalization payment.  This program makes certain that the newly formed district would not receive less general state aid from the year prior to the merger of the two districts.  The State would provide a newly formed district $1,229,464.00 over the next four years. A second state incentive is the Teacher Salary Equalization payment.  Under this payment, a newly reorganized district would receive $1,995,660.00 in incentive payments.  Yet another financial incentive is the Payment of Certified Employees.  Over a three year period, a reorganized district of Carlinville and Girard would receive $1,620,000.00.  There is a fourth incentive payment offered by the State of Illinois.  It is the Debt Difference Payment.  This incentive is a single payment made to district that entered into the reorganization with operational debt.  Since neither district is currently in debt, this payment would not be made.  However, the total incentive package offered to the districts if they were to merge in the near future would be $4,915,124.00.  . 

However, many requirements would need to be met before any such referendum could even be on a ballot.  The first step requires that either the boards of education from each district, or a citizen petition with at least fifty registered voters from each of the communities, file a petition to the Regional Superintendent of Education.  Once the Regional Superintendent has received a petition from each district, he would gather information and publish the time and place of a public hearing over the possible reorganization.  At this public meeting, people from both districts may give public testimony related to the issue of the reorganization.  Should the Regional Superintendent  approve the petition and the reorganization plan as a result of the information received, the petition moves to the State Superintendent of Schools for approval.  Additionally,  a “Committee of  Ten”, a group of ten citizens from the two communities with the responsibility of promoting and organizing the effort to bring about a successful referendum and reorganization, is formed to monitor the reorganization process through the referendum stage.  If the petition meets the approval of the State, the reorganization referendum is scheduled for the next regularly scheduled election.  If the referendum for school reorganization is approved by a majority in each of the affected districts, then the newly reorganized district would begin operation on the next July 1^st.

In the end, the citizens from each community decide whether or not the reorganization becomes a reality.  The final say rests with the voters.  Please remember, the vote must pass with a majority in each of the affected communities.  If the voters are not in favor of the reorganization, the process ends right there.  Plus, there can be no further action over a merger involving the same two communities for a period of two years. 

The Girard Board of Education will be discussing the possible reorganization at the Girard Media Center on August 27, 2008, as part of the regular Board of Education Meeting agenda.  All interested community members are encouraged to attend.  

To view the Power Point Presentation, click on the following:

Carllinville / Girard Reorganization Power Point

To view the entire 280 page study, click on the following:

Carlinville / Girard Reorganization Study

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