State schools chief: Consolidation unlikely in suburbs

As State Superintendent of Education Christopher Koch prepared to hand out 19 awards to Tri-Cities area schools for academic achievement, words like “family,” “community” and “together” flashed on a screen in front of him.

But “consolidation” was the word on people's minds. Koch, at St. Charles Unit District 303's Munhall Elementary School Thursday, said it doesn't have to be in most suburban school districts.

“For any unit district, there wouldn't be as high a need for consolidation,” Koch said. “But we do have an issue in some populated areas of a disconnect with some high schools and their feeder elementaries. The need for consolidation really depends on the region. And communities have to be engaged in that conversation.”

Gov. Pat Quinn pitched the elimination of about 600 school districts via consolidation in his budget address last month. The idea is to save $100 million by reducing unnecessary administrative costs.

But Koch said that may not be a realistic goal or even the best selling point for consolidation. Indeed, consolidation may not even be on the table when it comes to most suburban school districts, he said.

“It's an issue of what kids have access to,” Koch said. “In some areas of the state it's hard for kids to have access to an advanced placement course or a rigorous curriculum. We know that that's going to make a huge difference for them in being successful in college and careers.”

After handing out all the awards to Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles district leaders for schools making the state's honor roll, Koch said consolidation doesn't enter his thoughts when it comes to high-achieving suburban districts.

A key aspect of the consolidation debate must be creating efficiencies in the education system, he said. Many school districts have found ways to share costs and services as a result of state funding arriving late over the past two years. Efficiency doesn't always mean closing a school or merging districts, Koch said.

“It's really these kinds of cooperative arrangements among districts that the state wants to facilitate, if possible,” Koch said. “It makes sense, I think, to do them.”

A second but related conversation is how to really determine if a school or district is failing to provide a rigorous curriculum. By 2014, every school in the state must hit the 100 percent mark for adequate yearly progress to avoid the failing school label created by No Child Left Behind legislation. Koch said that must be a discussion both on a federal level and with individual parents concerned that their school is failing.

District 303 saw the impact of such concerns at its Richmond Elementary School. Nearly 120 students have left the school since it received the failure label during the 2007-08 school year. Now the district is considering consolidating Richmond with Davis Elementary School in a grade level center. Richmond has the highest concentration of students from low-income backgrounds in the district.

The key for parents to evaluate a school is not in its No Child Left Behind label, Koch said, but in the individual student achievement.

“We have to make sure that growth is being shown,” Koch said. “... What parents need to know is how important it is to intervene when their kids aren't making it. There is a direct correlation between poverty and low performance. Again and again that's shown to be a problem. The state's interest is certainly getting to those at-risk kids earlier.”