On the Agenda: District 113A to Discuss Next Round of Borrowing

The Board of Education will begin discussing another round of short-term borrowing during its regular board meeting Monday night.

Following the defeat of a $20 million working cash bond referendum April 5, the district has been advised by PMA Financial and legal council to being the process of securing tax anticipation warrants against 2011 property taxes, officials said.

In a recent interview with Patch, District 113A Superintendent Tim Ricker said a successful referendum would have allowed the district to bring back programs and teachers, and would have also eliminated the need for borrowing.

Moving forward, Ricker said the district will once again need to borrow tax anticipation warrants to meet its financial obligations in July. The last round — $5.5. million — was issued by in January after District 113A was turned down by multiple financial insitutions.

The district is on track to pay off the debt to District 210 by June, Ricker said. However, financial advisers determined the district will then need to obtain between $6.7 million and $7.5 million in TAWs. Though a financial institution has yet to be identified, Ricker said he and representatives from PMA Financial have already been working to secure the TAWs for about two months.

District 113A is currently certified "in financial difficulty" by the Illinois State Board of Education, and is operating under a state-approved financial plan. Without a successful referendum, the district is required to further reduce expenditures for the upcoming school year.

"The good thing is that we have a plan," Ricker said. "We've been parallel planning for this scenario for months, so we are not going to have to do anything beyond what we've already said we're going to do."

During the meeting, the board will also hold a public hearing on the possibility of waiving Casmir Pulaski Day — a legal school holiday — for a regular school day.

The state of Illinois celebrates Pulaski Day on the first Monday of every March in remembrance of the Polish-born calvary officer who trained American soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

District 113A waived the holiday this year, and must formally vote on the measure again for next year.

Old Quarry Middle School Principal Bill Caron and Central School Principal Gina Rodewald, chairpersons of the district's calendar committee, will address the issue during the hearing. The committee is recommending the board waive Pulaski Day as a school holiday "so that there is a greater concentration on the ISAT testing, which begins the week of this holiday," district documents stated.

"It is important that we meet the increasing expectations of meeting adequate yearly progress goals.  The staff will build in a lesson on the contributions Pulaski made to the United States through class discussion and presentations."

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Old Quarry Middle School LRC, 16100 127th St. For more information, visit www.sd113a.org.