15 / 32
15
LMMay 2019 Special Edition
Enrollment: 1,665 FY18: $1.1 million
Type: 9-12
FY19: $810,221
Before the passage of the Evidence-Based Funding
Model, United Township High School District #30 was
operating on the margins, Superintendent Dr. Jay
Morrow said.
“Our property tax rate was established in the 1950s
and hasn’t changed since,” he said. “We had to rely on
borrowing during pro-ration of general state aid. EBF
helped us stabilize our budget significantly.”
Morrow said the district has focused its EBF dollars
on increasing technology and providing more social-
emotional supports for students.
The district purchased more than a dozen Google
Chromebooks mobile labs to greatly expand the usage
of the devices, as well as updated the high school’s
digital infrastructure to improve connectivity and internet
speeds for students.
“That has been a very significant thing for us,” Morrow
said about increasing the district’s technology budget.
United Twp HSD #30 also used its EBF dollars to
hire an additional high school counselor. Thanks to a
partnership with social service agencies, the district
also added two mental health counselors who will work
at the high school.
“So many of our counselors have to focus on career
planning and college preparation, so they were just not
able to devote enough time to meet as many needs
as our students have,” Morrow said. “We felt it was
important to dedicate resources so kids could get the
help they need.”
United Twp HSD #30
continued...
The goal of the STEM program eventually is to make it
student-led, Seaton said, adding the “sky is the limit” on
the potential once students see what their predecessors
did and build from there.
“We were waiting financially for retirements or an
opportunity to adjust staff,” Seaton said on the district’s
plan to design a STEM lab. “But with EBM coming in, it
gave us enough cash on hand to go ahead and do it.”
Streator’s new STEM lab will provide students with job skills needed for a new labor market. We were waiting, financially, for
retirements or an opportunity to adjust staff. But with EBM coming in, it gave us enough cash on hand to go ahead and do it.
—Matt Seaton, Streator Twp HSD #40