WHD SD147 discusses tax increase and low Black student achievement after state releases annual ratings

The West Harvey-Dixmoor School District 147 board discussed a 2.9 percent tax levy  on Nov. 3 that residents will pay next year when the county releases tax bills. They will make a final vote at its next meeting on Dec. 1. 

The levy will bring in an estimated $5.6 million, contributing to 19 percent of the district’s 2026 anticipated revenue. Most of the revenue, an estimated $4.17 million, from the levy will be directed toward educational expenses. 

Inflation and the volatility of the economy, capital projects and facility upgrades, and fund balance maintenance were among the reasons to request the tax levy, according to Janiesa Owens, the District’s chief school business official. 

State law requires that school districts where property tax exempt federal buildings are located, carry a fund balance no more than two-and-a-half times of a three-year average of the district’s expenses. As of June 30, WDH SD147 had a fund balance that is 67.2 percent of its average expenses.

The fund balance requirement ensures that the district can pay for its obligations such as pension, social security, salaries, and debt to maintain financial solvency if they don’t receive tax revenue they hope for.

School ratings 

In late October, the district received its annual rating from the Illinois State Board of Education. Schools can be designated as exemplary, commendable, targeted, or comprehensive, listed from highest performing to needs improvement. 

The ratings are based on student attendance, academic performance of student groups — racial/ethnic, English Language Learners, and students with disabilities — and school quality surveys that are administered to students and families. 

ISBE’s targeted score for achievement is 38.71. While Rosa L. Parks Middle School exceeded that score at 42.33, and earned a commendable designation, Black students and children with disabilities are among student groups that are targeted for improvement. Over half of the school’s population are Black students, and nearly 11 percent have disabilities. 

Only 15.5 percent of Rosa Parks’ Black students are proficient in English Language Arts, and 21.2 percent for the school’s overall population. Black student performance for math has been redacted, but only 3.8 percent of the total population is proficient.  

King Elementary School scored below the targeted score at 35.36, and designated comprehensive, dropping two levels from commendable from last school year. As a comprehensive institution, it is among the lowest performing five percent of schools in the state. 

Forty six percent of King students are considered chronically absent, missing more than 10 percent of the school year. More than a quarter of the overall student population is proficient in English Language Arts at 26.9 percent; 20.6 percent of Black students are proficient and 34.6 percent of Latino students. 

For math, 10.2 percent of all students are proficient, but data for Black and Latino students has been redacted. Nearly 55 percent of students are Black and 43 percent are Latino.

Louisa Shannon, the assistant director of curriculum and instruction presented, shared the district’s plan of action to improve instruction and equitable professional development for teachers so that teachers are all working from the same curriculum and leveraging the same teaching strategies. 

“Together we’re working on building systems district wide. One of them is around attendance because we saw that chronic absenteeism is 20 percent, and that for some we can grab those points,” Shannon said. For math improvement, teachers will bring manipulatives to “to start with concrete and move to more abstraction.”

To improve English language arts instruction, they are considering a new program, and will ensure that the texts used in the classroom are “authentic text culturally responsive,” Shannon said.