D2/D157 General State Aid Notice (2016­-17)

Nippersink S.D. 2 and Richmond­Burton C.H.S.D. 157 received an additional General State Aid payment recently, as a result of a lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Education. District 2 received a payment of $1,494,006.24 and District 157 received a payment of $767,606.81.

The suit, originating September 2011, sought recovery of General State Aid funds entitled to the D2/D157 school districts according to a specific, applicable school code provision.

“In the event that a single elementary school district is co­-terminous with a high school district and the two districts employ a common superintendent, the state equalization aid to the two districts shall be computed, first, as though they constituted a unit district and second, as for the separate districts, and the state equalization aid to be allowed shall be one­half of the sum of the two state equalization aids so computed. The excess of the equalization aid so determined over the amount which would have been allowed to the two districts as separate districts shall be allocated between the two districts in proportion to the average daily attendance of each.”

The two school districts have shared a common superintendent since the 2007 ­ 08 school year and possess co-­terminous boundaries (identical school boundary lines encompassing both the elementary district and the high school district).

The districts were originally denied additional payment from the Illinois State Board of Education, upon their initial request for General State Aid recalculations in November 2010. The districts appealed to the State Board’s position again in May 2011. Given the denial, the districts pursued legal action.

Former Nippersink School District 2 Board President Patricia Anderson is credited for bringing light upon this particular school code provision located in an approximate 1,350 page, complex document.  The school code provision in question has since been repealed by the Illinois General Assembly (effective July 2014). However, the districts were able to capture funds owed to them for the prior seven school years (2007-­ 2014).

In a joint statement, Board Presidents Bert Irslinger (D2) and Steve Holtz (D157) expressed:

“We are extremely pleased we prevailed. We were convinced and confident in our position that we were right in the interpretation and application of this particular school code funding provision.  We are thankful all current and former Board Members and Boards of Education have unanimously supported and invested in this ongoing pursuit on behalf of our school communities. The Boards were committed to the lengthy legal battle and are delighted with the outcome.”

The districts were represented by Ottosen, Britz, Kelly, Cooper, Gilbert & Dinolfo, LTD. The approximate $80,000 legal cost was split between the two school districts.