Dist. 301 school grants appreciated, but not enough

Fast-growing school districts Friday heard how much they'll collect in grants from the state.

Though officials say any influx of money is welcome, some school coffers won't be as full as was hoped.

"It's one of those good news/bad news things," District 301 Superintendent Brad Hawk said of his district's $202,652 grant.

A state budget deal last summer that was supposed to send millions to schools fell apart amid claims of political betrayal. A changed plan with less money doled out to growing districts was approved in early January.

The new budget plan allocates $7.5 million to 43 districts that saw population growth of between 1.5 percent and 7.5 percent.

"We got a notice from (state Rep.) Tom Cross this fall related to the change in the original allocation," Hawk said. "It asked us if we would write in and say please override this."

Most of the money will be used to fund the 21 new teachers hired this year, and the five to 10 additional teachers Hawk expects the district to hire next year.

Those new positions, Hawk said, are based on enrollment counts.

"We had consistently seen 13 percent enrollment for the last few years, but in 2007 we only saw 6 percent growth," he said.

With an increasingly slow real estate market, the district expects less than 6 percent growth in 2008.

This year's fast growth grants are the first since 2005, Illinois State Board of Education spokesman Matt Vanover said.

Public school enrollment in Illinois increased from 1.95 million in 1998 to 2.08 million in 2007, a release from the state said.

In the past decade, student enrollment increased by 125,858 or 6.4 percent.