Lincoln-Way D-210 board prepares to question auditors

NEW LENOX – As Lincoln-Way High School District 210 board members gear up for questioning a longtime district auditor this week, many parents and residents are searching for answers surrounding the district’s poor finances and decision to close North High School.

Board members plan on questioning auditor Mulcahy, Pauritsch, Salvador & Co. on Thursday, where they may also approve the fiscal 2016 budget.

Board member Christopher McFadden – who joined the board this year – criticized the auditors in a board memo and recommended running an independent audit of expenses.

Since the past summer, parents and residents – many of them associated with Lincoln-Way Area Taxpayers Unite – have sent a flurry of Freedom of Information Act requests to the district and tried to speak with officials to investigate if closing North was the right decision and if money was mismanaged.

“We trusted that our money was being managed appropriately and I think now we are learning it has not been and people are angrier and angrier every day,” said Liz Sands, a Tinley Park resident and North parent.

Sands said there are many residents who don’t believe a school needed to close this year. They don’t believe the decision was thoroughly researched and residents are gathering budget information for each academic building, she said.

Todd Velky, another North parent, said the “rush to close a school” has made the community stand up. He said one goal of skeptical residents is not to divide others but to help them see that district financial problems are a taxpayer issue across Lincoln-Way.

“Lincoln-Way is supposed to be modeled as one of the best [school districts] in Illinois,” Velky said. “How it went from the best to one of the worst is why we’re trying to figure this out.”

District officials have said in the past that a poor economy and decreasing state funding over the years led to Lincoln-Way’s status on the state’s financial watch list. Lower-than-expected enrollment – projections of increased home building led to the construction in the late 2000s of North and West to accommodate the expected growth – also impacted the district.

At a Sept. 9 budget hearing, Board Member Christine Glatz said in response to a question on past budgets that the past administration’s accounting practices were “not very strong.”

She said Sept. 14 that she didn’t phrase what she said at the hearing eloquently, saying her intent was “simply to state we have room for improvement.”

“This is not a blame game,” said Glatz, who’s been on the board since 1993. “My purpose in saying that wasn’t to blame. Going through everything we have been going through, there is opportunity for us to do better.”

She said she should have asked more questions about the budget in the past. When asked about the budget process under former Superintendent Lawrence Wyllie, she said it was thorough and not “too dissimilar to what it is now.”

She had no specific examples of how the budget process was different under Wyllie or current Superintendent Scott Tingley.

Messages to board members Christopher Kosel and Arvid Johnson – who were on the board under Wyllie’s administration – were not immediately returned. Board member Dee Molinare directed questions to Board President Kevin Molloy and District Spokeswoman Abby Milone.

Tingley said budgets were passed by the board at the start of the fiscal year based on best-case scenarios, but deficits were reported to the state after the fiscal year closeout.

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TIMELINE OF EVENTS

• March: Lincoln-Way receives financial watch rating from Illinois State Board of Education

• May: District officials deny school closure rumors but say financial turnaround plan needed.

• June 11: Board weighs options for reducing budget deficit.

• July 16: Board decides to close a school.

• Aug. 13: Board picks North high school as the one to close in a 5-2 vote.

• Aug. 27: Board approves transition of students between schools present in North Option A.

• Sept. 10: Board approves hiring Steven Langert as interim business manager.