Staff welcomed back to school in Kankakee Dist. 111

At the start of a new school year, teachers and staff are just as anxious and excited to get back into classrooms as the students are.

At least, that seems to be the case in Kankakee School District 111.

Staff members let out cheers, applause and laughs, and even danced a bit to some music at a convocation Monday morning welcoming them back for the 2025-26 school year, which officially begins Wednesday.

Superintendent Teresa Lance, now entering her second year as leader of the district, touched on everything from budgetary concerns to achievement gaps and academic priorities with staff gathered in the auditorium of Lincoln Cultural Center.

“We are elevating excellence this year,” she said.

Budget concerns

Regarding the district’s finances, Lance said the tentative fiscal 2026 budget has a projected deficit.

“This is going to be like a reality check,” she said. “I have to talk about money. ... We are spending more than what we are getting in.”

The tentative fiscal 2026 budget includes about $89 million in revenue and $91 million in expenditures.

Lance said that balancing the budget is going to require the district to “lean into some hard decisions.”

As operating costs have increased and state and federal funding have decreased, the district has had to dip into its reserves, she said.

During the tentative budget presentation at last week’s school board meeting, it was noted that the district’s reserve funds decreased by about $18.4 million between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2024.

The biggest expenditure over that period was about $44.7 million in capital projects.

Lance said the school board’s policy is to maintain at least 63 days of reserves. That means if money stopped coming in, the district could stay afloat for two months.

“The state recommends 180 days [of reserves], so we’re going to make some adjustments,” she said. “... No, we’re not broke, but we have to be very mindful of our spending.”

Achievement gaps

In District 111, about 90% of students reside in low-income households, and 14% have individualized education plans.

Lance noted these demographics are underperforming on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness English language arts and math exams compared to their peers, and the gaps have been widening year after year.

If the district remains on the same path, it would take over a decade to close the achievement gap for students with IEPs, while the gap for low-income students would likely never close, she said. It is critical for the district to get its curriculum right and for principals and teachers to take the right approach.

”Our children are depending on us to do something different,” she said. “... If we do nothing, the gaps never close.”

Lance also said it is important for teachers to set high expectations for all students, regardless of their family’s income or background.

“We have children who are ready [to learn],” she said. “They are walking into our classrooms in our buildings, ready. We cannot control and think less of them because of the zip code.”

Academic priorities

One of the district’s academic priorities is that learning objectives must be clearly posted for students in every classroom.

In other words, students should know what they are going to be learning each day, why they are learning it and how they will know they are successful.

“How many of you wake up in the morning, and you want to know what you’re doing for the day?” Lance said. “... Students deserve to know where they are going.”

Students should also be allowed to talk and engage in meaningful discussions about their work, rather than simply listening to their teachers all day.

Another priority is reading and writing skills. Lance said literacy should be embedded in every classroom, regardless of the subject of the class.

“Just expose them to it,” she said. “This idea that children don’t read is foolery. That’s foolery. Our children will read if you give them a book.”