District 44 Survived the Crisis. Can Its Recovery Last?

Ten years ago, Streator Elementary School District 44 had four days of cash on hand.

Voters had rejected two tax referendums. A bank considered the district a credit risk. Its auditor had questioned whether it could keep operating, and Illinois formally declared it to be in financial difficulty.

Today, the district has more than $22 million in reserves, according to its latest unaudited figures, and the state’s highest financial rating.

That is a remarkable recovery. It gives the schools protection against unexpected expenses and room to make decisions without an emergency hanging over every meeting.

But having survived the crisis, can District 44 afford the future?

The answer matters to families who depend on its schools, employees who endured the cuts and property owners wondering what the next tax bill will bring.

The records do not point to another immediate financial emergency. They do show that the recovery will take work to preserve.

How the district found its footing

The recovery came through a combination of sacrifice and help.

The district closed a school, reduced staffing and moved 49 support employees to part-time work during the crisis years. Illinois’ 2017 overhaul of school funding later brought more state support. Federal pandemic assistance helped pay for staff, programs, equipment and improvements.

As reserves grew, they began earning meaningful interest: about $756,000 in fiscal 2025.

The district’s finances improved dramatically. But some of the sacrifices outlasted the emergency. The current employee contract provides a path back to longer hours and health insurance for qualifying support workers.

Restoring those benefits is part of what recovery can make possible. It also creates expenses the district must be able to support year after year.

That is the distinction at the heart of the story. Reserves show what the district has accumulated. They do not establish whether future income will keep up with future bills.

What happened to taxpayers?

For most residents, school finances become real on the property-tax bill.

Here, two things have happened at once: the district’s tax rate has fallen, while the total property-tax dollars generated for it have increased.

County records show the rate declining every year from tax year 2019 through 2025, by about one-third overall. Yet calculations using the district’s reported property values and rates show taxes billed rising from roughly $5.2 million in 2019 to $6 million in 2024.

The explanation is the growing taxable value of property. When that base grows, the district can receive more money while charging a lower rate. Higher assessments on existing homes contribute to that growth, alongside any new construction.

For an individual homeowner, the result depends on how much the taxable value of the property changes.

A home with a taxable assessed value of $30,000 in 2023 would have owed about $950 to District 44. If that value rose to $36,000 the following year, the lower rate would still have produced a bill of about $1,025.

A board member pointing to a lower rate and a resident reporting a higher bill can both be right.

The district’s preliminary 2026 proposal seeks about 5% more property-tax revenue across the funds it lists. That would not mean the same percentage increase on every household’s bill, but it underscores why residents need to see the dollars alongside the rate.

Local taxpayers helped support the recovery. Its next chapter needs to account for their budgets, too.

The bills keep growing

The adopted fiscal 2027 budget still expects the district to take in more than it spends overall. But the room between annual income and expenses is much smaller than the reserve balance might suggest.

Health insurance shows how quickly that room can narrow.

Blue Cross Blue Shield’s initial renewal offer would raise annual premiums by 36%, following a 31% increase accepted the previous year. The latest proposal would add about $1.3 million a year—roughly the size of the budget’s projected $1.26 million operating surplus.

That is a comparison of scale, rather than a prediction that the surplus will disappear. The final price, employee contributions, timing and amount already budgeted will determine the actual impact.

Still, insurance is again a serious pressure. State officials identified unusually high health-benefit costs when they examined the district’s troubles a decade ago.

Scheduled pay increases and expanded insurance eligibility also need continuing revenue. Meanwhile, the district plans to draw down the Tort Immunity Fund, which paid about $1 million in staff salaries in fiscal 2025, along with insurance and legal costs.

Those expenses will need support after the accumulated money is spent. Moving them to another account would change where the bill lands, without making it smaller.

The reserve cushion gives the district options. Some of that money is reserved for specific purposes, however, and savings cannot indefinitely cover bills that grow faster than income.

Keeping track of the recovery

Financial stability also depends on how well the money is managed.

The latest audit repeated a concern first reported in 2009: the district relies on its auditor to help prepare complete year-end financial statements. Staff can review and approve those statements, but management has accepted the additional risk of relying on outside help to prepare them.

Auditors separately identified weaknesses in federal-program procedures, including missing contractor payroll records, food-service accounting issues and a reimbursement claim that counted 750 breakfasts twice.

Residents deserve to know what has been corrected.

The board approved an independent forensic accounting review by Wipfli in July. Superintendent Jeffrey Alstadt described the proposed review in a written response to The Standard as a proactive step connected to reorganizing the business office, rather than a response to a specific concern.

What that review finds, and what the district does with its recommendations, belongs in the public account of how the recovery is being protected.

A smaller district, a larger community question

The longer-term challenge reaches beyond the business office.

District 44’s enrollment fell from just over 2,000 students in 2011 to about 1,480 in 2024–25—a decline of more than a quarter.

Fewer students do not automatically make schools proportionately cheaper. Losing a few children across several grades may leave the district needing the same teachers, classrooms, buses and buildings. Heating a school does not become much cheaper because several desks are empty.

Larger savings usually require changes that families notice: different staffing, class sizes, programs, transportation or use of buildings.

Recent enrollment will help show whether the decline is continuing. But the larger connection is clear: the schools’ future depends partly on whether Streator retains families and attracts new ones.

That makes the district’s financial outlook a community question as much as a school-board question.

What comes next

There are reasons for confidence alongside the pressures.

Debt payments are falling sharply, easing a longstanding obligation. That improvement is already reflected in the current budget, so it cannot be counted again as money available to absorb future increases.

State support remains essential, providing nearly three-fifths of the operating budget’s revenue. Whether that support keeps pace with costs will help determine how much the district needs from local taxpayers.

Even with its strong financial rating, the district remains well below what Illinois’ funding formula estimates it needs to adequately educate its students. A healthy reserve balance and fully supported classrooms measure different things.

The next financial plan needs to bring those realities together. Residents should be able to understand how the district expects to support its schools, maintain its buildings and meet employee commitments without steadily draining savings or placing an unmanageable burden on property owners.

The district does not have to solve every problem in the next budget. It does need to show how today’s decisions fit into the years that follow.

A decade ago, District 44 faced choices under the pressure of running out of money. Today, it can make them earlier, explain them more clearly and give students, employees and taxpayers a meaningful place in the discussion.

That opportunity may be the most valuable thing the recovery bought.