Southwest IL school board votes to shutter elementary school at the end of the year
Students at Sorento Elementary School will have to attend a new school in the fall after the Bond County CUSD 2 school board voted Wednesday night to close the school at the end of the school year.
During four public hearings, Sorento parents and community members asked the board not to close the school, which has just over 100 students. The last of those hearings was held just before the school board meeting, where the board voted 4-2 to shut down the school and send those students to Pocahontas Elementary, Greenville Elementary and Greenville Junior High.
Enrollment in Bond County schools has been dropping for a decade, most rapidly at Sorento and Pocahontas, the two smallest schools in the district. Those two schools have a lower student-to-teacher ratio than Greenville Elementary and Junior High. The district and some school board members cited equity for class sizes as a major issue they wanted to address with the closure.
“The idea of having one teacher for eight or nine students is great for those students, but from the district perspective and fiduciary responsibility, that’s not very efficient or a good use of funds,” Superintendent Wes Olson said.
Discussions about closing the school started more than two years ago, but were dropped in March 2020 when schools had to switch to remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public hearings are required in Illinois before a district can close a school, and those were scheduled in December.
Initially, a vote was on the agenda for a meeting Dec. 22, but Sorento community members expressed outrage over how the public hearings were organized and timed right before Christmas. Two more hearings were then scheduled in January.
“Nothing is more sacred than the trust we put in all of you to make the best decisions for our children,” said Melissa Goymerac, a Sorento parent who has spoken at every public hearing. “That trust can be broken and it has been by this process.”
Olson recommended the board take one of two actions: either vote to close Sorento, or vote to keep it open and allow the administration to combine grade levels with Pocahontas, the second-smallest school in the district. This year, the two schools combined their third and fourth grade classes because of low enrollment. That option would also allow the district a year to do a thorough study of district enrollment and finances.
Either way, Olson said he thought the board needed to make a decision Wednesday night so the district could start to move on.
“This is not a fun place to be,” Olson said. “This is divisive. Having the conversation is not fun. It’s not pleasant. It’s not something anybody wants to do.”
After the board voted, there were a few beats of silence before members of the public — most of whom seemed to be from Sorento — shouted questions and exclamations as the board adjourned. Ten police officers were in the auditorium, and some parents said they were keeping their students home tomorrow and threatened to pull them out of the district entirely.
Board Vice President Brian Zeeb made the motion to vote to close Sorento School, saying that between inflation and the district’s previous years of deficit budgets, they needed to “do more with less.”
“My opinion is and has been that there’s a financial cliff ahead,” he said. “Not everybody sees that the way I do.”
Some Sorento community members floated the idea of dissolving from Bond County CUSD 2 and annexing to another district. As they left the high school auditorium where the board was meeting, several parents and students teared up.
There are still two major unknowns for Sorento staff and families. The board of education will have to create boundaries to split up Sorento students between Pocahontas and Greenville. Sorento Elementary is 16 miles from Greenville Elementary and 13 miles from Pocahontas Elementary.
Additionally, some certified staff positions, which includes teachers, will be cut.
While Olson told the board that uncertified staff would be reassigned, he expected to cut five certified staff positions with the closure. He added that those positions could potentially be cut through natural attrition, but if not, a reduction in force is determined by seniority, credentials and performance evaluations.
“There’s not finality for what this looks like for staff and students tonight,” he said.
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