SUPERINTENDENT’S COMMENTS
February 23, 2016
Dr. Lynda C. Andre
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Topics included in this communication:
- Edwardsville High School’s Four National Merit Finalists
- Lincoln School Alumni Foundation’s Give Me 5 Program
- District 7: Focus on Finance series
- Highlights from the District 7 Finance Committee meeting
Edwardsville High School’s Four National Merit Finalists
District 7 is pleased to announce that four Edwardsville High School seniors, Maggie Anderson, Gwyneth Cross, Matthew Morse, and Eden Vitoff have been named as National Merit Scholarship Finalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program. These students had been named Semi-Finalists last September. Monetary scholarships for students named as Finalists will be announced later this spring.
As we announced last September, Edwardsville High School also had ten students who received Commended status on the National Merit qualifying exam.
We are proud of these students and their outstanding academic accomplishments.
Lincoln School Alumni Foundation’s Give Me 5 Program
I want to thank the Lincoln School Alumni Foundation for their $20,000 donation to support an after school program for third through fifth grade students living in the northern area of District 7. The five after school mini-camps were conducted by a variety of Edwardsville High School sports teams and club sponsors. The “Give Me Five” program:
- Provided elementary-aged students with opportunities to interact with
positive teen role models - Exposed students to a variety of high-interest activities
- Provided a structured after-school event
We appreciate the ongoing support of the Lincoln School Alumni Foundation.
District 7: Focus on Finance Series
On Monday, February 29, the District will begin an informational series of weekly e-mails to all parents and employees entitled District 7: Focus on Finance. The purpose of these communications will be to provide parents, employees, and the community with information about the District’s current financial status and the board’s plans to restore financial stability to the District.
Topics that will be covered in this 9-month long series include:
- How the District receives its funding from both the State of Illinois and local property tax revenues
- Expenditures associated with the excellent programs and educational opportunities offered to District 7 students, and
- Strategies the Board of Education has used in attempting to balance the budget since 2008-2009
Messages will be sent each Monday morning and will be posted on the District website and Facebook page and on all school webpages and Facebook pages.
We look forward to your feedback.
Highlights from the District 7 Finance Committee Meeting
At last night’s Finance Committee meeting, the Board of Education discussed the role that Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) plays in providing for the District’s primary source of funding –property taxes. District 7 receives approximately 80 percent of its total funding support from this local source which is calculated based on the property values of all residential, commercial, industrial, and farm land within its boundaries. By law, property is assessed at 33 1/3% of its fair market value. For example, a home valued at $150,000 would be assessed at $50,000 in determining tax amounts.
Over a nineteen-year period (1990-2008), District 7’s total EAV grew at an average rate of 8.35 percent and from 2001-2007 grew at an unprecedented 11 percent annually. As a result, the District was able to collect an additional $1.2-$2.6 million annually to fund the educational programs and services to its growing student population supported by the Education Fund.
In 2009 when the local housing market and state economy began to falter, the District’s EAV growth rate came to a sudden stop. Since 2009, the District’s EAV has only grown at an annual average rate of 0.19% and for three consecutive years was negative. All of this occurred as the District’s student population continued to grow.
At the same time that local property tax revenue growth in the Education Fund stalled, the State’s contribution to the District declined by over $7 million annually. The State has given no indication that it will be able to restore funding to previous levels in the near or distant future.
The compounding effect of the significant reduction in state funding and flat property tax revenue growth placed the District in a situation where reserves were utilized, additional Working Cash bonds were issued, and operating expenditure reductions were made all in an effort to prevent large employee layoffs and reduced educational programming supported by the Education Fund. Based on current obligations, it has left the District facing the depletion of all Working Cash reserves and additional $600,000 Education Fund deficit at the end of this school year and a projected $4.5 million deficit in the Education Fund for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years.
The Board of Education has determined that the only way to adequately fund our excellent educational programs and services for the children in District 7 going forward will be to consider asking taxpayers to support a tax rate increase in the Education Fund.
While the District’s commercial EAV base has grown since 1990, the proportion of property tax revenues remains approximately the same – 79-80 percent from homeowners and 16-17 percent from businesses. The Board discussed the common misconception that new commercial buildings and stores have compensated for the significant residential EAV decline. While new businesses do contribute property taxes on the assessed value of their building, the District does not receive revenue from the sales taxes generated by the business as do local municipalities. For example, a large local supermarket will only pay $67,000 in property taxes to District 7 while two popular restaurants will pay District 7 $18,000 and $25,000, respectively. Again, the volume of business/sales is not what generates revenue for the school district, only the assessed value of the building.
Future Finance Committee meetings will focus on topics such as state funding for educational services and transportation, Education Fund tax rate comparisons between District 7 and school districts in Madison and St. Clair Counties, and upcoming expenditure reductions and fee increases that are planned for the 2016-2017 school year.
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