Naper Elementary

At a time when school districts all over DuPage County are slashing budgets and laying off personnel to avoid deficit spending, Naperville schools are giving taxpayers a reason to continue to bear the sacrifice.

The Illinois State Board of Education recognized 35 Naperville area schools Friday for maintaining high academic performance.

Out of 975 Illinois schools earning honors this year, 17 were from Community Unit School District 203 and 18 were from Indian Prairie District 204.

“Recognition is more important now than ever,” Illinois State Superintendent of Education Christopher Koch told the assembled crowd at May Watts Elementary School, a District 204 school that was among those recognized.

The annual awards are based on Illinois State Standards and represent progress made under the national No Child Left Behind legislation.

Three categories of schools are recognized by ISBE — schools with high poverty populations, those showing substantial gains over three years and schools meeting or exceeding state standards for three years and showing Adequate Yearly Progress under NCLB standards.

Naperville schools fell into the third category.

District 204 Superintendent Kathy Birkett spoke of the approach to keeping schools on track. “What we strive for is relative to student achievement,” she said before the ceremony. “We focus on individual students.”

Saying “we are honored to have him here,” Birkett praised Koch for strongly advocating empirical data to drive education policy.

And lest anyone forget what so many academic studies show, Birkett emphasized that the most important factor in high achieving schools was a strong principal.

One of those principals, Karen Currier of Steeple Run Elementary School in District 204, spread the credit around. “We have lots of wonderful students and wonderful parents,” she said, “And we have great teachers.”

But over the good feelings and well-deserved feeling of achievement hung the unmistakable anxiety of the state’s financial situation.

“It’s really bad,” Koch said, noting that the State of Illinois was $1 billion behind in payments owed to school districts across the state. “We have that much issued in vouchers, which the comptroller can’t pay.”

And Koch didn’t see things getting better soon, saying, “We’re going to be seeing late payments for a while.”

While part of the problem is a deeper than usual recession, Koch sees it as systemic as well. “We’re not addressing it at the state level,” he said. “It’s only going to get worse.”

Naperville schools are among those waiting in line. The state is $13 million in arrears to District 204 and $7.5 million shy of fulfilling its responsibilities to District 203.

But Koch did note a possible source of revenue: the Race to the Top Grants that are being awarded to individual states. Illinois is eligible to bid on $400 million in federal funding, of which $200 million could go to local schools and the rest would be earmarked for programs in technology, professional development and infrastructure.

Schools honored

District 203

Junior high schools: Lincoln, Washington, Madison and Kennedy.

Elementary schools: Ellsworth, Elmwood, Highland, Mill Street, Naper, Prairie, Maplebrook, Steeple Run, Scott, Ranch View, River Woods, Meadow Glens and Kingsley.

District 204

Middle schools: Gordon Gregory and Clifford Crone.

Elementary schools: Robert Clow Brookdale, Spring Brook, May Watts, Reba O Steck, Patterson, Gwendolyn Brooks, White Eagle, V Blanche Graham, Mary Lou Cowlishaw, Oliver Julian Kendall, Nancy Young, Arlene Welch, Fry and Owen.