Kaneland may use only one middle school

MAPLE PARK – Citing effects of the feeble economy, Kaneland District 302 officials say it would be more affordable to house children at the new middle school now under construction instead of operating two schools.

“That is an option,” Assistant Superintendent for Business Tom Runty said. “We can open the new building and put them all there. We’ll watch and see. There is enough room for them for several years. Maybe down the road, it becomes the second middle school or creates overflow for high school.”

The district is faced with cutting $1.1 million for 2009-2010 and $2.3 million in 2010-2011, Runty said. It would cost $1.3 million to open and staff a second school.

The school board asked for what could be cut, so the district does not go into deficit spending. The board will discuss the options at a workshop meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 at Kaneland High School, at the Milnamow Administration Center, 47W326 Keslinger Road, Maple Park. The board is expected to take action on cost-saving measures in January.

The new school can comfortably hold the district’s 1,100 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The school, on Harter Road in Sugar Grove, is under construction and set to open in August. It can hold 1,200 students, and up to 1,350 with larger class sizes, Runty said.

The current middle school can hold only 750 students, so eighth-graders were moved to Kaneland High School for half a day. Voters approved a $65 million referendum in February to build the second middle school and other improvements.

Superintendent Charles McCormick said the current middle school, located next to the high school, also might become a freshman center when the district adds another 300 students over the next four years.

“Some assumptions have changed, and we will be going over that on Dec. 8 with the board,” McCormick said.

The district’s cash woes are directly tied to the economy.

 “If things stay the way they are, we kind of get into a zero growth or no growth mode. Everything is going to be on the table – assistant coaches, travel, the possibility of laying off teachers,” Runty said.

The district is limited by what it can get in property taxes. The tax cap limits levy increases to the consumer price index or 5 percent, whichever is less. Runty said the district’s costs go up faster than the rate of inflation. With the housing slump and no new growth as a revenue stream, the district will have to cut spending as much as possible, he said.

Runty said there was no way the district could predict how bad the economy was going to get when it was working on the referendum.

“How do you predict $4 a gallon gas? How do you predict energy costs that doubled?” Runty said. “We’re not making anything on our investments. That is part of our revenue stream. How do you predict the State of Illinois owes us $2 million for the year in categorical area – for reading improvement and special education and transportation reimbursement – and they’ve paid us $8,000? And there’s no immediate future in anything coming. The state is $4 billion behind in its bills now; it could be $5 billion by March.”

The district would continue to finish improvements at the current middle school and then keep it ready for use. Runty said it might be open just for the gym or special classes, but it would be an empty building until the economy turns around.

George Silfugarian, co-chairman of the referendum committee, said the news was tough to take.

“It’s disappointing that it has come down to this, but I guess the district has to do what’s best for the district in the long term,” Silfugarian said. “No one could have foreseen this. Even when the housing market did slow down, the school enrollment was still increasing.”

Kaneland Education Association President Linda Zulkowski said operating in one middle school instead of two will not be a problem for teachers, but she worried about class size.

“The economic reality is you do what you have to do to make things work,” Zulkowski said. “Right now at the middle school, we have 30-plus students in some classes and we were hoping by opening two schools we could alleviate some of that.”

Zulkowski said she also hoped the district would not have to lay off teachers.

“I would hope they would look at cost savings in another way by not replacing positions for those teachers who are retiring,” she said. “We have approximately 20 teachers retiring over the next three years.”