Commission to decide regional school superintendents’ future

SPRINGFIELD — Now that state lawmakers have found money to pay for regional offices of education, focus has shifted to a new commission that could determine the long-term fate of the offices.

The law approved this month that sends most regional superintendents the pay they’ve gone without since July 1 also puts together a commission tasked with examining closely what the offices do and how they can do it more efficiently.

DuPage County Regional Superintendent Darlene Ruscitti says the topic already has been examined and officials like her have already made recommendations.

But the new commission is supposed to report back to lawmakers by next summer.

Ruscitti says it’s frustrating that the commission only calls for one member of the 14-member, unpaid group to be a regional superintendent.

“We know the good and the bad of every school district in the region,” she said.

Gov. Pat Quinn will appoint the chairman of the new group, even as his lieutenant governor, Sheila Simon, is already leading a panel aimed at looking for efficiencies and possible consolidations throughout the state’s school systems.

Quinn budget spokeswoman Kelly Kraft says the two groups will no doubt overlap and, she hopes, work together.

Quinn unilaterally cut funding for regional superintendents this summer, forcing lawmakers this month to approve a way to pay for them retroactive to July 1. The method they chose takes money from other local governments to cover the education offices.

But it only lasts until June 30, so lawmakers and Quinn will have to find a longer-term solution in the meantime.

Quinn has argued that though the regional superintendents help fulfill state requirements, they ultimately serve a local function and shouldn’t be paid for with state money.

“He feels they have local responsibilities and they should be paid for at the local level,” Kraft said.

Other members of the new commission will be appointed by top lawmakers, teachers unions and other groups with a stake in the final report.