Dean Casper: Rita Hasn’t Given Up on Consolidation

Dean Casper didn’t expect such a widespread response.

In just over a week since parents, school officials and board members from Community Consolidated School District 146 met on Feb. 25 to discuss House Bill 1886, opposition to the bill has been expressed well beyond the district’s boundaries. The bill, sponsored by 28th District Rep. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island), would eliminate all school districts in the state except for Chicago Public Schools, and consolidate the districts into one or two per county.

As of Monday, March 7, a Facebook group that was started by District 146 parent Sue Sherman after the Feb. 25 meeting called Illinoisans: Say NO to House Bill 1886 has grown to 1,120 members. Calls and emails have flooded to Springfield from parents, teachers, administrators and board members, demanding to know if anyone outside of Springfield gave input on a bill that would cut 500 of the 868 school districts in Illinois down to combine resources. State representatives have not shown support either, and Rita decided not to read the bill last week in the Counties and Townships committee.

On Friday, Casper received a call from Rita about people’s response to the bill. Casper spoke with Patch about the conversation, about who else should weigh in on school district consolidation and how even though HB 1886 wasn’t read last week, this issue is far from finished. Several messages and emails to Rita sent within the last week from Patch have not been returned.

Why did this phone call take place?

He wanted us to hear his side, though I think it’s pretty obvious if you read the bill. 

Going back a little, when we met for the Friday meeting no one had heard anything about this bill. Not much press coverage. It just seemed things were moving too fast. The date listed in the bill is July 1, 2012, for the dissolution of all districts except Chicago. Anyone would say it takes a year just to do the accounting for such a change. If this thing were to become law, it would happen during this spring. After the meeting, the Facebook group was created. Over the course of the weekend and last week, the group is now over 1,100 people.

I think he called because the opposition is mouthy. If I was the subject for something I created and 1100 people in a week lined up against it, that would be intimidating. He wanted to reach out. It seemed like he wanted to clear the air. We put together a town hall meeting to talk about consolidation. Before the response to this bill, I figured it would just be us, (districts) 140, 135, 230, 228. Maybe 100 people would attend. But people from all over the state are weighing in. It’s not an anti-Bob Rita meeting. It’s a time for people to hear the bill.

What did you ask him?

I told him it just doesn’t make sense for a lot of districts. That this is not what people have in mind for solving funding problems. I had some very pointed questions about how the bill was written. Did he gauge it with anyone, bounce it off of other reps? That’s what we do on the board. It’s just common sense. I had direct questions about that and was frank with him about the anxiety and concern for parents and board members that there was no outside input.

Who did he say offered input on the bill?

 The ISBE (Illinois State Board of Education), and his staff. He didn’t get input from anyone outside of that. I’m surprised that he was surprised by the reaction. What did they expect? Districts fold up? Our three districts (140, 146 and 135) have had people working for many years to build the districts to where they are at, and now we are forced into elimination? It doesn’t sit well with me. It’s heavy handed. That’s not the right process. Of course there will be resistance, and the Facebook page is more evidence. I want to see if any of these commissions only have members of the GA on it. That would be unfortunate. But if they do have a commission with outside people, with parents, school board members, admins and teachers, and no lobbyists, then we’ll see. This needs people from the front lines of education. They know the day-to-day battles.

I asked if he would attend our town hall meeting, because it is not about being anti-Bob Rita. He won’t be there. He’s traveling that day. I offered to have a speakerphone set up, and he turned that down. I suggested he send a representative for him, and he didn’t go for that either. I even offered to read a statement from him myself at the meeting. That was also turned down.

Did he say what, if anything, would be next for HB 1886, especially since technically it is not dead?

HB 1886 is sitting in committee. He said he is the only person who can call it, and he gave his word that he won’t do so. But why he can’t just withdraw it, I don’t know. He didn’t elaborate. His word has been given, and he’ll be held to it. Do I think he’ll call it? I don’t think he is convinced the idea is a bad one, I think he is convinced he doesn’t have the votes. And therein lies the problem. Now, there was a lot of back and forth, which was good, but I wish there was more of that before this bill was entered.

Since now the input can at least be expressed, what would you offer?

I think the answer is if there are districts that need the help, then fix those, but let’s not punish 146, 140, 135 and others who are doing it right. If a school board votes for it, then it happens. If not, it goes to a referendum, and then if residents don’t want it leave them alone. My fear is this is more motivated by money than anything else.

He said there are district where superintendents are making a lot of money and there’s not enough money left for books. He made broad statements of wanting more money in classrooms, which seems to be the canned statements. I didn’t hear from anyone about how the bill will improve that part of it. And if he wants the salary a superintendent makes he should go back to school. Dr. (Marion) Hoyda (District 146 superintendent) is running a $30 million investment. If there is a school district paying for leadership and there’s no money for the kids, then hold the board to that because they are elected to do just that. Don’t raid our coffers because they didn’t do a good job.

This was a good, frank exchange. I said if he did more of this earlier he’d be better off now.

Did he say what would happen next in Springfield?    

He said he’d pursue other legislation. The only thing he committed is that it won’t include the countywide school district idea. He’s not acknowledging that he learned it’s not a good idea. I think he learned it’s not popular and he won’t get votes.

The governor (Pat Quinn) has touted the $100 million number for how much consolidation would save the state. I asked Bob if he could account for the $100 million. He’s not getting it from the smaller districts down state, so he’ll have to come after suburban Cook. He said the governor hasn’t offered accounting of the number, but he’s sticking with it.

But consolidation by itself is not the answer. Two poor districts getting together doesn’t fix anything. And if you take a great district and merge it with a weaker one then now they both are weaker. I’m not saying I have the solution. But I don’t think the answer is to destroy the good ones. We are not a wealthy district. We have plenty of people on public assistance, free and reduced lunch programs. We are frugal, fiscally sound and everyone has an oar in the water. Our tax base isn’t all that great. We have fund balances, but I won’t hear that we are wealthy.

They need our input. Hopefully we’ll do it again.