Unless the Illinois General Assembly provides more money to schools, some districts may have to close facilities and slash programs next school year according to State Superintendent Christopher Koch.
Sangamon County Regional School Superintendent Jeff Vose says local schools are already struggling, pointing to District 186 as an example.
“If these preliminary projections go through, it is possible doors will close” says Vose. “Here locally, we have lost teachers’ aides, there’s larger class size, they’ve cut teachers.”
Vose says more state and federal mandates without additional funding to implement them is causing many schools to run in the red.
In a written statement Tuesday, District 186 Interim Superintendent Bob Hill cautions it is still early in the state budgetary process and speculation about impacts on local school districts would be premature.