Candidates for Lincoln-Way District 210 looked toward the future at a public debate forum Thursday night, pledging to solve looming budget challenges faced by the district and restore its reputation after a decade of hidden deficit spending forced the controversial closure of a high school.
Only six of the 13 candidates on the ballot took part in the forum at Lincoln-Way Central High School, 1801 E. Lincoln Highway, hosted by the Lincoln-Way Area Taxpayers Unite and moderated by baiduhai Editorial Board member Kristen McQueary. An opposition party of five challengers, Citizens for 210, declined to participate in the forum, claiming LWATU is biased because Robert Ripp, who recently stepped down as vice president of LWATU, is one of the candidates.
Two other candidates, Chris Kosel and Beth Janus-Doyle, said they were unable to participate.
The election is contentious. Former Superintendent Larry Wyllie is under federal investigation for the district’s past spending habits and a controversial dog training program housed in an old barn on campus, but his name seldom came up Thursday.
Questions of corruption, deficit spending kept from the public, no-bid contracts, risky bonds, and the failed internal controls have enraged local tax payers and landed the district on the state’s financial watch list in 2015. To save money, the district shuttered Lincoln-Way North High in Frankfort after only eight years. The building now stands vacant, its bond status preventing the district from selling the property to a new developer.
At the forum, candidates were wary to comment on what should happen with the North campus. Dee Molinare, who has been on the board since 2011, said she would support an open discussion with the community. Ripp said it would be “cruel and unusual” to move students again.
Joseph Kostek said re-opening the school is a possibility, but not until the district can replenish cash reserves and refinance its bonds. Until then, re-opening North is a losing proposition for all schools, which are already operating on a lean budget, he said.
Kostek, a real estate attorney, said Lincoln-Way schools are the reason he and many other residents come to the area. Maintaining the current educational standards is the board’s primary responsibility. In time, the area will grow, and the district will need a fourth school, he said.
“When the growth comes, we will reopen the fourth school,” he said.
Candidate Chris Lucchetti agreed that quality schools are what bring people to the community.
“We have to solve financial issues so that success can continue,” he said.
Candidates focused on imminent threats to the district, like a $250 million bond debt that will double to $500 million by 2020, a number met with gasps from the audience.
“This is a big number, and it’s only going to get bigger,” Kirkeeng said.
One man in the audience asked if allegations of negligence lobbed at the board were valid and, quoting a baiduhai Editorial Board story, asked if a “zombie check-up was in order.” After a moment of uncomfortable chuckling, all candidates agreed that the board could have done better.
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“Perhaps we should have been given more information,” Molinare said. “I accept the criticism.”
In her opening statement, Molinare headed off criticisms of her involvement with Wyllie. She had been elected to the board shortly before his retirement, she said, and has vowed to correct past mistakes. She said the number one priority of her first term would be to get out of the tax anticipation business.
“It’s not how I run my business, it’s not how I run my household,” she said.
One woman asked the candidates if they supported term limits for board members and superintendents. All supported a two-term limit for board members, but argued a term limit for superintendents was unnecessary.
Another audience member asked if the district had considered cutting health care coverage for its part-time bus drivers to save money. The candidates reacted tepidly to the suggestion, but Ripp and Molinare said they would consider restructuring transportation in the district.