Dr. Leininger, and members of the Education Funding Advisory Board, thank you for holding this hearing this afternoon and allowing us to come before you to talk about our opinions on school funding.

My name is Barbara Toney, and I am President of the West Chicago Elementary District #33 Board of Education. I've been on the board for the last 15 years, 13 of which I have been President. I have also served on a number of committees and task forces, most notably the School Problems Council with former Senator Berman, and most recently the Eikenberry Commission. I don't presume to know all there is about education funding, and I greatly respect the task before you these next several months.

I do know, however, about how funding affects our school district, and particularly, how the financing of schools affects the services we provide to children. My job is about students, and how we, as a Board of Education, can provide the best education within our financial limitations to the children of West Chicago.

Let me tell you a little about West Chicago #33. Although West Chicago is located in DuPage County, we hardly reflect the typical DuPage County school district. We are a PreK-8 school district serving approximately 3800 children in 7 school buildings. According to our last state report card, our student enrollment is 48% of Hispanic heritage, 25.5% low income, and we have an 18% mobility rate. In addition, we are a fully inclusive district meaning that we meet the needs of almost all of our children with disabilities within their home school and class that they would be in if they did not have a label of a disability. We have many challenges facing our district, but I've always said that, "We are the best kept secret in DuPage County." (Although I guess now having said that here, the secret is out!)

In terms of our finances, we have one of the lowest EAV's per pupil, yet one of the highest tax rates in DuPage County. We also receive 33.6% of our budget from the state of Illinois. I have often heard people say that if a district is unable to provide services based on its current revenues, that the district should have a referendum and ask the community to increase their property taxes. And so, we did that. We asked for an education rate increase in 1990, 1996, and 1997. Our community, already over taxed because of paying some of the highest taxes in DuPage County said, "No."  In fact, we haven't had a successful education rate tax increase since 1985.

And here comes the part about the kids. When a district no longer has the funds to operate, even at a status quo level, something has to be cut, and we had to cut $1.4M out of our budget. When approximately 8 1 % of our budget is salaries and benefits, a Board of Education has no choice but to cut staff. And so we did. And here's what happened to the kids:

• We cut 44 teachers; 23 of them were classroom teachers....
• That means that we had class sizes capped at 35 students per classroom.  (We bussed to other schools the students that enrolled after the class reached the maximum of 35.)  Prior to the cuts, we had no classes with more than 29 children in a class.  After the cuts, 46% of our classes contained more than 30 children.  Teachers were literally bruising themselves bumping into desks in the classroom, to say nothing of the academic climate in those classrooms.
• We cut our music classes, art classes, and PE classes taught by specialists in their field in half. Instead of having music classes twice a week for a year, we had music classes twice a week for a semester. Instead of having PE classes taught by a PE teacher 5 days a week, we had PE taught 2 days a week by the PE teacher and the other 3 days were "teacher taught" PE.
• Because we had to cut our "special classes," we were forced to shorten the school day by 20 minutes.
• We cut the amount of time classes spent in the learning center in half because we no longer had enough library learning center staff.
• And unlike the movie Mr. Holland's Opus where they ran out of money and cut the music program, we ran out of money and cut not only band and orchestra, but we also cut all intramural and interscholastic sports. No music. No sports.
• We also cut an administrative position. We went from 5 central office administrators to 4; already a small number of administrators for a district of our size.
• And, because we wanted to be responsive to cutting the budget in other areas besides personnel, we also made no new textbook purchases, and purchased no new or replacement instructional equipment.

That's what happens to children when budgets are cut. The Board meeting where the names of the 44 teachers who were being RIFfed was read, reminded me of gatherings when you hear the names of Holocaust victims or AIDS victims being read. The room was silent except for the occasional sniffle. As a longtime Board member, those were the most difficult decisions I ever had to make, and the worst Board meeting I ever attended. And I stopped bragging that, "We were the best kept secret in DuPage County."

But there's a happy ending! And that happened only as a result of the state increasing the funding to school districts. Because our district is so reliant on state funding, when the state funding was increased to districts, over a period of two years, we were able to restore ALL the program cuts we had made. -Unfortunately, for those children who were in classes of 35 with reduced programs and no music and sports, those cuts permanently affected their education. But for the other students in our district, and for our future students, we were back to the level we had been at 2 years prior.

In fact, I'd like to quote from the opening day speech I made to our teachers in August of 1998.  I said, "On behalf of the Board of Education, I'd like to welcome you back as we begin the school year of 1996.  Ok...so now you're probably all thinking ...wow!  She's really lost it...the heat has gotten to her...she's totally confused...she said 1996, and it's 1998.  Well, the heat may be getting to me, and I may be confused, but I purposefully said 1996.  Our district, in 1998, is finally back to the way it was in 1996.  Thanks to HB452 and additional funding from the state of Illinois, the number of teachers who were RIFfed have been rehired; our class sizes have returned to a more normal size; the arts, PE, district-sponsored band and orchestra, and sports at the middle school have returned; and we have lengthened our school year.  It took two years, but we're finally back to the District #33 that we're all so proud to be apart of."

The task before you is -enormous and as you deliberate on your recommendations to the legislature I implore you to at the very least, increase the Foundation Level by $100 as you have in the past, and continue to fund the Hold Harmless Provision. If District #33 were not to receive the additional $100 in the Foundation Level, all things being equal, we would not receive - $479,000; almost half of a million dollars. Please don't put me in a position of having to again make staffing and program cuts.

Please remember that the recommendations you make, directly affect our abilities as Boards of Education to offer services and programs to children. And after all, aren't "children" what we in education are all about?

Thank you.