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U-46 frustrated over lack of funding fix help

Elgin Area School District U-46 officials are expressing frustration with both the state board of education and state House leaders, saying they are dragging their feet to help the district with a funding fix.

"We've been quiet, we've been cooperative," board member Karen Carney said at Monday night's school board meeting. "When we say we're going to do something, we do something. We get none of that in return. ... There's just no excuse for the behavior that has taken place over the last year."

As the clock ticks, U-46's financial outlook only worsens.

Illinois is now behind more than $20 million in payments to the district this year. Without a state budget on the table, the school board expects cuts to education, but can only guess how much and to what areas.

With 53 schools, U-46, second only to Chicago Public Schools in size, spans 11 communities in Kane, Cook and DuPage counties.

District officials believe they are losing out on millions in state aid each year by being designated a predominately Kane County school district, though most of the district's taxable property has been in Cook County since 2004.

The more local resources available to a school district, the less state funding it receives.

The "limiting rate" - the maximum property tax rate allowed under the suburban property tax cap law - determines the amount of local funding a school district gets. If it is overestimated, it appears the district will receive more in local property taxes than it actually does, and the state delivers less funding.

This school year, district officials calculated they should have netted $69.7 million in general state aid. But with Kane County working as the dominant and estimating county, U-46 will get only $58.3 million.

The state gave U-46 a one-time $7.1 million "administrative fix" this year to help with the funding shortfall.

Along with requesting a permanent redesignation from the state board of education; U-46 has also thrown support behind legislation that would force the state board to adjust general state aid payments for multi-county districts.

Sponsored by Sen. Michael Noland, an Elgin Democrat, the legislation passed the Senate with a 40-15 vote late last month. It now sits in a House rules committee.

District spokesman Tony Sanders told the board Monday that House leaders requested a meeting with district officials to clarify "what the bill was trying to do."

The last week of March, during U-46's spring break, Sanders drove down to Springfield only for the meeting to be canceled.

The state board, too, has made little movement since U-46 Superintendent Jose Torres spoke to it about the issue in mid-February.

The state board is supposed to send U-46 financial projections of what a fix - or lack thereof - might look like sometime this week, Sanders said.

Torres said the district will continue to press legislators, and reach out again to state Superintendent Chris Koch. He also reminded board members that there are several other things on his plate.

"We're in a very tough place and we still have 41,000 students coming through to the district. I understand that this is an important issue, a huge issue. But it is just one of a number of issues we're confronting."