NEW LENOX — Lincoln-Way High School District 210 school officials denied rumors they are closing any of their schools in the face of budget deficits — but they will need to investigate ways to cut costs or increase revenues this summer.
Scott Tingley, Lincoln-Way superintendent, and Kevin Molloy, the new School Board president, said rumors that school officials were planning to close or sell any of their buildings are false.
Tingley said discussions of closing a building would have to take place in open session of a School Board meeting and the board “has not had those discussions.”
“I am in negotiations with no one to sell any of our schools,” he said.
Molloy said Lincoln-Way has dealt with rumors about school closures for several years. He said the board has not discussed closing a school and the matter will not be on the agenda for the next board meeting.
“We can’t do anything to stop perception,” he said. “We can’t do anything to stop rumors. This isn’t new… my feeling is because of our relationship with the [Illinois State Board of Education] with respect to the [state] watch list, that just fueled the fire to the newest rumors.”
The Lincoln-Way high school district declined from early warning to financial watch under the ISBE 2015 Financial Profile Report. Tingley has said the school district had to deal with deficit spending, as well as declining revenues, state funding and student enrollment.
“We’ve waited to see if the economy would recover to see if the state would turn around and if our enrollment would increase and none of those have happened,” he said.
Now the district needs to find ways to resolve its financial issues.
Molloy said since 2008, Lincoln-Way has eliminated $9.5 million out of its budget, which led to cutting administrators, teachers, programs and labs. School officials also projected student enrollment to grow to 9,000 by 2019, but enrollment has either stagnated or declined to roughly 7,000 since 2009, according to state data.
Molloy said he hoped in the next several months school officials will hold at least two community meetings to go over information about the school district, such as expenses, enrollment numbers and enrollment projections.
School officials are also working with ISBE on data gathering, as Tingley has reached out to them for assistance, he said.
He said he hopes by mid-June, Lincoln-Way will have enrollment projections with its feeder schools.
School officials would have to weigh their options, such as needing a referendum to resolve its deficit or implementing student activity fees.
“If you’re going to do things the right way, you have to identify and have to investigate,” Molloy said.