Lincoln-Way Serves Up 'Verbal Manure' as District Blames State for Financial Catastrophe

There is much to wonder about and many unanswered questions as Lincoln-Way School District 210 makes plans to close LW North High School next year, having run out of money to run the seven-year-old, state-of-the-art building. When classes begin in the 2016 academic year, the brain trust of LW 210 will be moving thousands of students to LW East, built in 1977, and LW Central, which opened in 1954.

Daily Southtown columnist Phil Kadner, who has written in depth and at length about Illinois school funding for the better part of three decades, was in the audience Thursday night as the school board went public with a decision that was by all appearances a foregone conclusion. He brought a pen and a notebook.

He may have wished for a shovel.

Kadner writes:

As verbal manure filled a school auditorium, I expected men in hazmat suits to rush into the building. But while veracity was asphyxiated early in the evening, the only other casualty was Lincoln-Way North High School, given a year to live.

School board members in Lincoln-Way High School District 210, which ought to be one of the wealthiest school districts in the Southland, told a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered Thursday at Lincoln-Way Central High School in New Lenox Township that their public schools were running out of money, had been placed on an Illinois State Board of Education financial watch list, and that at least one, possibly two, of the four high schools in the district would have to close.

How the school district (which includes New Lenox, Frankfort, Mokena, Manhattan and parts of Orland Park and Tinley Park) ended up in crisis remains a mystery to many, but several school board members stated over and over again that in their estimation it was clear the state was at fault. ...

School board member Arvid Johnson, who presided as board president during Lincoln-Way’s financial collapse, told the audience that the real problem was that over and over again the school district had expected the state to increase school funding over the years and “each time, the state of Illinois did not meet its obligation,” actually reducing the amount of money Lincoln-Way received. He expressed astonishment, apparently having discovered this was the case in recent years, although it has been a growing problem for nearly three decades.

» read Phil Kadner’s column

Southtown sports columnist Pat Disabato, however, doesn’t understand why LW North parents are upset. In his view, with the loss of the high school and the consolidation of students at East, Central and West, the district is poised for a huge improvement ... in the competitiveness of its sports teams.

Ultimately, fewer kids will get to play. But the best kids will get to play, and that’s what matters.

Disabato writes:

Ladies and gentlemen, if this is the worst thing to happen in your life and your child’s life — having to attend a different Lincoln-Way high school — consider yourself a lottery winner in the game of life.

I mean, really? ...

The good news is that the talent pool will grow stronger in most every sport, which in turn will make each school more successful. ...

Parents complaining and whining are making the situation only worse.

» read Pat Disabato’s column

So, the school board members believe they bear no responsibility for losing a school. But on the plus side, they’ll get much better sports teams out of this catastrophe. How reassuring to see everyone’s priorities in the right place.