Local school districts are facing challenging financial times.

With Illinois continuing to cut funding and districts expected to keep academic levels high, times are getting tough for them. Mike Williams, Superintendent of Maroa-Forsyth Schools lays out what has happened in his district the past five years. He says their funding for Fiscal Year 13 is down $800-thousand from that of 2008. He says that is a total of $2.2-million in total revenue lost over that five year period.

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Not only has the economic downturn at the state level hurt schools and their funding sources, but it has slowed local economic growth. Williams says that also impacts schools. Using 2008 as the baseline, there was some economic development locally, but Williams notes, since then there's not been much at all and that is impacting them and their decision making.

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In trying to find areas to save money and cut back, like many districts, Maroa-Forsyth Schools are doing that through attrition. Williams says this year they have a couple teachers retiring, and instead or replacing them, they are going to leave those positions vacant and that will result in a bigger class sizes at their lower levels next year.

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Many may point to the district using money to install artificial turf and a new track surface at the high school, along with a new scoreboard as unwise use of funds. However, the money used to pay for those upgrades came from a 1-cent sales tax for education. And those sales tax funds, which have generated around $700-thousand annually for Maroa-Forsyth schools, can only be used on facility improvements, not teacher salaries, programs or anything else.

Williams says if something doesn't change financially soon for the state of Illinois, schools will see major changes in the ways they receive funding.