The Jan. 13, 2025, Kaneland school board meeting covered various topics, notably including potential district wide position cuts and a continued discussion of the Crown Community Development tax increment financing (TIF) in Sugar Grove. All seven board members were present.
The meeting began with recognition of the successes of fall sports by Director of Athletics and Activities David Rohlman. He thanked the coaches and volunteers, as well as high school athletic trainer Maggie Walker. Coaches and athletes from girls and boys cross country, football, girls soccer, volleyball, girls golf and the middle and high school American Choral Directors Association reported their success over the past fall season.
Assistant Superintendent for Business Dr. Jackie Bogan and Director of Human Resources Dr. Chris Adkins presented a proposed solution for the district’s projected deficit of 4.2 million dollars. This plan included budget cuts in diverse areas, including transportation with a cut of 6.43%, capital projects with a cut of 10.23% and programming changes or positions with a cut of 53.46%. With this plan, Kaneland would lose 11 roles at the elementary level, five at the middle school level, five at the high school level, seven at the Kaneland IgKnight Personalized Learning Academy (KIPLA), two at the district level and two at the administrative level. A few of these positions include multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) interventionists across the district, a middle school librarian, high school counselors and assistant principals. Additionally, despite recent renovations to the KIPLA building, students will now be split based on grade level and be relocated to either John Stewart Elementary School or Hater Middle School.
The board’s opinions on this proposal were split. Board President Addam Gonzales began the discussion describing his worry about the impacts of the reductions on Kaneland students, especially removing a total of seven MTSS employees. In response, Superintendent Dr. Kurt Rohlwling explained that they already have a plan to discuss with affected departments on how to adequately adjust these programs. Further, board member Jennifer Simmons and Rohlwing agree that these changes are in line with what the district looked like pre-COVID, chiefly in terms of the behavior positions. They also assured that programs and students will ultimately be protected.
Board Vice President Bob Mankivsky expressed his frustration with the large amount of student facing roles being cut compared to the small amount of administrative role cuts.
“We are taking a meat axe to the classroom, but we need the administrative KIPLA principal to become the District Assessment and School Improvement Coordinator,” Mankivsky said. “It does not seem to me that the sacrifices are being shared and are being appropriately allocated.”
Mankivsky, along with Gonzales, asked Rohlwing and others making this proposal to reevaluate the disproportion, which Rohlwing agreed to do. Gonzales also added that there are luxury positions at the administrative level, such as the communication director, that would make more sense to cut. However, along with Simmons and fellow board member Edmund Koch, the discussion ended with the three board members agreeing that for the most part, people in charge of making the plan did their due diligence in finding appropriate positions to cut. The board will vote on the approval of this plan at the next board meeting on Jan. 27.
Both sets of public comments were heavily focused on the upcoming discussion about position cuts. High school counselors Cynthia Violett and Anne Kuntz, Department Chair for Student Services Erin Shore, Director of the College and Career Readiness Center (CCRC) Kate Ozarka, Student Services Secretary Gretchen Hammer and Kaneland alum Bradley Frank spoke about their concerns of cutting two out of the seven counselor positions. With the proposed reduction, Ozarka would no longer be able to uphold the CCRC, which provides guidance for post-high school planning including college, trades and the military. Kuntz specifically pointed out that there would be a concerning decrease in the level they could implement the required post-high school readiness curriculum, which includes career exploration, post-secondary planning and financial aid and literacy. Additionally, she informed the board of the importance of personal relationships between students and their counselor, and since each counselor will have to take on additional students, these connections would be significantly limited.
Kaneland Education Association (KEA) President Suzie Acksel spoke on behalf of the union regarding the dismissals. Acksel noted their disappointment that they allowed spending to get so out of hand that this plan even had to be proposed. She implored the board to think hard about the effects that passing this proposal will have on Kaneland students. Similarly, KEA Chief Negotiator Patti Reeder claimed that the union would never have supported decisions that led to this financial ruin.
Many of the KIPLA parents that spoke shared similar concerns. Since the KIPLA building was recently renovated, KIPLA parent Katherine Soderstrom feels that relocating the students would be a waste. She shared other concerns like whether or not the elementary school and middle school has the required infrastructure and if the new educators are properly trained for the students’ specific personalized learning needs.
Sixth grade KIPLA student Joey Corbett shared his personal experience with the program.
“I have just been growing and growing because I have the opportunity to work ahead,” Corbett said. “How can [a student] work at a middle school level without any middle school help? I have been growing and growing, and that is what learning is.”
The other main topic was the Crown Community TIF in Sugar Grove. Kaneland Attorney Ken Florey spoke to the board about recent negotiations. Florey reported that their final draft for an agreement would allow Kaneland to receive 125 million dollars over the lifetime of the TIF, which is 23 years, however this is not a guaranteed amount. The board has discussed the possibility of pursuing litigation against Crown Community, and Florey stated that the board would have a good chance of winning and successfully stopping the TIF. The litigation would be a lengthy and drawn out process, as it would cost a minimum of 250,000 dollars and three to five years. If the litigation fails, the district would miss out on 95 of the 125 million dollars being offered. Simmons believes it is hypocritical to be earning so much money while they are considering making substantial budget cuts. Furthermore, Simmons questioned if it truly is the school board’s responsibility as the largest taxing body to stop the TIF or whether their fforts should be focused on things like the upcoming Sugar Grove election.
Board member Aaron McCauley expressed his frustrations with Crown Community.
“I am done,” McCauley said. “I absolutely, 100% refuse any agreement with them.”
Since it was a discussion, no decision by the board was made. Florey, though, recommended that litigation would need to begin within the next six months.
If a public comment was not expressing contempt for the budget cuts, it was expressing contempt for the TIF. Retired earth science professor Dr. Ross Powell has coordinated with a team of engineers and scientists to put data together for people to understand the TIF from a scientific perspective. He said that through their research, they have found the justifications for the TIF to be weak. The justifications included a claim that the land contributes to 88% of downstream flooding. However, Powell claims that this is untrue, and that the land actually has a very low chance of contributing to downstream flooding. Instead, the developments made through the TIF will be what increases this chance.
Community residents Pat Gallagher and Jaden Chada also expressed their discontent to the board. They both reiterated the fact that the money that Crown is offering the board is money they are legally entitled to. They additionally encouraged Sugar Grove residents to vote out the current leadership.
Rohlwing reported that Kaneland Connects will hold a meeting at KIPLA on Thursday, Jan. 16. Bogan informed the board that funding for homeless students has been increased to 1,000 dollars. Board student representative Sarah Slattery shared that the boys and girls wrestling teams and the varsity boys and girls basketball teams have had successful seasons so far. The Kaneland Krier’s third issue comes out on Thursday, Jan. 16, and the staff is entering their competition season following last year’s Sectional championship and fifth place finish at the State tournament.
The meeting concluded with a closed session with no possible action as a result. The next Kaneland school board meeting will be held on Monday, Jan. 27.
