HARDIN CO.—An effort is underway to offset the predicament the state has place many small schools in, particularly in downstate Illinois, and stave off any future outcomes at Hardin County Schools in Elizabethtown like what has already happened at Crossville Attendance Center in White County.
School superintendent Brad Lee in White County announced that the Crossville Attendance Center was closing on January 24.
Many feared that fate was coming to Hardin County Schools when the news hit the airwaves on February 6 that a RIF meeting (reduction in force, or, termination of staff) had been called for the school board earlier that week.
However, it appears that HC Schools superintendent, Dr. Keith Reinhardt, may have things under control
Responding to the understandable concern shown by parents in Hardin—many of whom, unfortunately, were resorting to “word of mouth” about what was going to happen to their school, and which “word” was growing more and more uncontrollable and inaccurate as it made its way through the community—Reinhardt advised Disclosure that while the school is hurting financially, it isn’t because of anything that the current or previous administrations are “doing”…it’s simply because the tax base in Hardin is shrinking, and the General State Aid (GSA) is following suit.
Reinhardt said that, as an example of the cuts continuing to be made, the GSA to Hardin in 2012 was placed at $2.854 million. The district was then notified that the state had prorated their actual take at 95.04 percent, meaning they’d cut almost five percent of money that the district was supposed to be allotted, and they only received $2.7 million, a loss of $154,000 in one year’s time that the district expected to receive.
“The school is funded off GSA,” Reinhardt said. “With the total tax base in Hardin County, even if there were a proposed 4.9 percent tax increase, we couldn’t tax ourselves out of this.”
The only choice the district had left, Reinhardt said, was to cut expenditures.
“Eighty-five percent of our expenditures is faculty and staff,” he explained. “They did cuts last year trying to offset this. But because we don’t know what we’ll receive from GSA until the state budget comes out, there’s always the possibility we’ll be short.”
With a two-year loss in GSA now totaling $450,972, and another potential half-million-dollar loss in GSA in the next school year alone, Reinhardt has been faced with very difficult decisions.
He began making suggestions with the most obvious—reduction in force.
A tentative motion was made, at a board meeting called specifically to address the RIF, to cut the following staff: Jacob Bartok, Ryan Cowsert, Ira Cruson, Neysa Dix, Michael Milligan, Stephanie Mosby, Bonnie Rooney, Gary Shetler, Reima Shelter, Stan Powles, Jennifer Warren and Wilda Young.
All have been notified of the tentative decision, but no cuts have been made. According to Reinhardt, the contract renewals for educators have a deadline of March 1. If no cut is officially made by deadline, the contract automatically renews for another year.
Another plan set in motion was the non-renewal by the school board of grade school principal Jean Ann Smith’s contract. How that will be handled (whether to hand the job of principal to someone already on staff, and whom) will be determined in upcoming meetings.
Curriculum to be cut includes Band, Automotive, and Art. Other than that, Reinhardt said, there’ll be full course offerings. Reinhardt did note that no sports programs will be cut.
“We’re going to be trying to use the teachers more efficiently,” Reinhardt said.
As well, he said, there are plans to bring in retired teachers to fill in where cuts were made. If these retired ones work only two to three hours per day, the cost as regards what hourly wage they will make will be lower than the salaries of the full time teachers, even if more of the retired teachers put in the short hours.
Many of the decisions will be made at the upcoming school board meeting later this month; Reinhardt encourages parents and concerned citizens to attend the school board meetings so that they’ll be informed on what the district plans to do.
Hardin County Schools is the only school serving the entire county, one of the smallest in the state of Illinois.