Lincoln-Way says financial health improving

Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210 has improved its financial profile status with the Illinois School Board of Education and is no longer among schools on the state’s financial watch list, according to district officials.

The district had been on the watch list since 2015 and has been upgraded to “financial early warning,” according to district and the state board officials.

In a news release Friday, District 210 said the status improvement is due to consecutive years of budget surpluses. The state board issued the current school district financial profile report in March.

It ended fiscal year 2017 with an operating surplus of $5 million and finished fiscal 2018 with a surplus of $8 million. For fiscal year 2019, which closes at the end of this month, District 210 anticipates an operating surplus of $3.3 million.

After years of deficit spending, the district landed on the state’s financial watch list in 2015 and officials were forced to close one of the district’s schools to cut expenses.

District 210’s former superintendent, Lawrence Wyllie, was indicted in September 2017 on federal fraud charges, accused of misappropriating district funds for his own benefit and concealing the district’s dire financial condition from the public.

“Stabilizing the district’s financial position and increasing its operating fund balance has been a major focus of the board of education and district administration,” Supt. Scott Tingley said in the release.

Apart from building fund balances, district officials are having to deal with substantial amounts of debt and escalating debt service costs.

In 2006, voters approved a $225 million bond issue to build the Lincoln-Way North and West High Schools, and make improvements to Central and East high schools.

At that time, the bond payments were structured to balloon in later years, with the assumption that continued residential and commercial development in the district would provide sufficient property tax revenue to cover debt payments, but that anticipate growth was stalled by the recession.

The district last year hired PMA Financial to help with the debt matter and district officials have plans this fall to seek an improved bond rating from Moody’s Investors Service. The firm in March of last year upgraded the district’s bond rating to “stable” from “negative.”

The district, in the release, said that if it can secure a better rating, the school board will work with PMA to consider debt restructuring options.