Fieldcrest Superintendent Dr. Michael Stagliano announced his resignation at a Board of
Education meeting held in Toluca Thursday night. Dr. Stagliano will remain with the school
district until his present contract expires on June 30, 2005. He was hired in July 2001. His resignation created another
problem for the school board to cope with in the midst of its current financial crisis.
After Dr. Stagliano's announcement the Board got down to business and promptly rejected another proposal
at consolidation. Board member Joe Kirpatrick made a motion to accept proposal #3 which would maintain
a K-4 in Minonk, Toluca, and Wenona, and consolidate
grades 5 & 6 in Toluca and grades 7 & 8 in Wenona. His motion was defeated 4-3 with
Kirkpatrick, Tim McNamara, and Tom Barth voting for the proposal. The opposing motion accepted Proposal #3
under the condtion that the proposal be studied by the
new superintendent and later approved by the Board before implementation. This effectively delayed implementation
of the proposal from the fall of 2005 until the fall of 2006. This proposal was estimated to save the district $75,000 to $125,000 annually.
At the August Board meeting the Board of Education approved a Resolution to place a tax rate
increase question for the Education Fund on the November 2, 2004 General Election ballot.
The rate increase of $.55 per $100 of EAV will generate $531,000 in revenue each year that
the full $.55 rate is applied. However, the full rate will only be applied as needed.
Dr. Stagliano said successful passage of this referendum is crucial to the healthy maintenance
of District programs. Also, a successful referendum will allow the Board to scale back some
of the extracurricular and activity fees and also allow
the Board to determine which academic programs to reinstate, that were formally cut.
Dr. Stagliano's letter of resignation can be read by clicking here.
Superintendent's Report
Governor Rod Blagojevich signed SB 3000, which will make major changes in the State Board of Education. He also appointed seven new members to the Board. The Governor will also seat a new State Superintendent of Schools.
A Budget Hearing for the FY 2005 fiscal year will be held in the Unit Office on Tuesday, September 28th @ 5:30 PM. The FY '05 budget is 9.5 million based upon budgeted expenditures and is essentially similar to last years if one backs out Bond P and I and our transportation expenditures.
HB 750 took testimony yesterday regarding amendments 1 and 2 to the House Bill. This legislation contains a comprehensive change in the State's taxation policy and presumably would increase revenue to schools. The only thing now left is for the legislature to get some political will. Illinois ranks 41st in the country in total state spending and 49th in the amount of state resources used to fund schools. Almost 80% of all school districts are deficit spending. With approximately 900 school districts state-wide that would place approximately 700 school districts on thin financial ice. The reason why Illinois doesn't pay its fair share of education costs is simple: It can't. That is because the state's fiscal system is designed to fail. The system is so flawed that it doesn't even satisfy any of the four principles economists have identified for funding government services:
Those principles are that taxes be fair
Responsive to economic growth
Stable during poor economic cycles
And efficient
Preliminary Committee work for the November 2nd Education Fund referendum is underway. On September 14th committee members outlined strategy for reaching out to voters on the ballot question. On Monday, September 27th the committee will formally set public forum times, dates and locations. A Citizens for Fieldcrest Finance Committee will be appointed that will be separate from the school district and comprised of District residents not affiliated with the school in any way. The local finance committee will be governed by the Illinois Campaign Financing Act and enforced by the State Board of Elections. A custodian of financial records will be disclosed at the beginning of the referendum campaign kick-off which will be announced by the end of September.
