It is 2:15pm on Monday and I just got a new assignment from a social studies teacher that is due as soon as possible. A member of our Mahomet-Seymour family, who is also employed as a social studies teacher outside our district, emailed the board today to suggest that each of the board members “publish their perspective on issues presently pressing our district.” It’s been a long time since I’ve had social studies homework, but I will do my best to address her prompt. 

Historic Times

As we are all very well aware, we are living through historic, unprecedented, and especially complicated times. Fundamental American life has been thoroughly disrupted by the global pandemic of COVID-19. The daily news is hard to hear. Today, the first active duty serviceman died of a COVID-19 infection. I just turned on the Illinois governor’s daily COVID-19 briefing and sadly, our state infection numbers are continuing to climb with 1,173 new infections and 74 new deaths in Illinois just today. 

However, if you dig through the news enough, you can also find bits of good news, which is something we all need right now. Yesterday, while many families like mine were experiencing Easter in a new way, Champaign county was able to report that there were no new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Nationally, the models utilized by the federal government and accepted by most experts in epidemiology suggest that our social distancing strategy is working and it is projecting significantly fewer deaths than originally expected. 

These times will truly test the mettle of the American people, Illinoisans, and citizens of Mahomet-Seymour. Will we give in to panic and fear? So far, our community has not. In fact, if there is one overriding story that can be told about our community during this time, it is that we have come together. The school district has mobilized to offer food to all students in our area, safely prepared in district facilities, and delivered to homes by district school buses. Our local business community and the Village of Mahomet has jumped into action to support one another and ensure that local businesses shuttered by the stay-at-home order are not shuttered permanently. There are MANY more stories of people coming together in spirit while remaining safely distanced at home. This makes me proud to be a part of our community.

Mahomet-Seymour Schools

One week ago, the Mahomet-Seymour board of education met to hear from our district administration about how the school district was doing its part to support the community, our families, and our students. The M-S administrators, led by Dr. Lindsey Hall, have done remarkable work in the most difficult of situations. Our teachers and staff have lept to action to support our children during these scary times with new approaches and methods. Many teachers are learning new technologies to support students as they go. I have witnessed my kids having virtual class meetings with their friends and teachers while sitting in their pajamas at the kitchen table. Our teachers and staff are working hard for us. Now, the board of education must return the favor.

At the meeting last week, the board made the decision to freeze hiring until April 20 (two weeks). Let me repeat this, because it has somehow gotten lost in the discussion: The board froze hiring for two weeks. This was done in order to give our superintendent time to gather information about her hiring plans for the upcoming school year and give the board time to discuss priorities as we face a possible looming economic crisis of truly epic proportions. 

Is a massive economic crisis guaranteed? Absolutely not! We could get lucky in one of many ways and the economy could bounce back quickly. That is a very real possibility and what I am hoping for constantly. However, most economists and experts are projecting that the global pandemic will trigger an historic global economic recession significantly greater than the Great Recession of 2008. For example, Harvard Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Kenneth Rogoff, recently wrote about the coming recession. He states that there is far too much uncertainty to know which way things will go with the economy. However, it is reasonable to assume it will be very bad. 

“Until there is a better sense of when and how the COVID-19 public-health crisis will be resolved, economists cannot even begin to predict the end of the recession that is now underway. Still, there is every reason to anticipate that this downturn will be far deeper and longer than that of 2008.”

At times like this, public bodies like the Mahomet-Seymour Board of Education must act cautiously and diligently. We must consider as much data as we can and take the long view in planning. We must do this in order to support those teachers and staff members that are currently feeding and educating our community’s children. 

Our board is lucky in that we have two members that were on the board back in 2008 when the recession caused massive impacts on public and private institutions. At the last board meeting, we asked Max McComb, our board president who was on the board during the Great Recession, how did that recession impact the district? He told us that the board froze hiring, reduced or cut positions, and ate into the fund balances that the district had built up to protect it from financial troubles. 

According to the 2008 annual financial report for Mahomet-Seymour, our district had 115 days of cash on hand as the Great Recession was beginning. Days of Cash on Hand is a financial health metric utilized by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to measure how many days a district can operate if all revenues were to suddenly dry up. According to the ISBE financial profile, the lowest risk districts have 180 days or more of cash on hand. According to our most recent annual financial report, Mahomet-Seymour had 40 days of cash on hand. However, this low number was largely caused by the late arrival of key local tax revenues this summer. Our current budget projections (if all revenues arrive on time and in their expected amounts) show that we will end this fiscal year with 82 days of cash on hand. 

So, this is what I am looking at. We have recent history that had our district prepared with 115 days of cash on hand at the start of the Great Recession and the board had to freeze hiring, cut programs, and reduce employment. Today, we expect 82 days of cash on hand (assuming the best), we are facing a potential economic crisis that experts much smarter than me are suggesting could be significantly longer and deeper than the Great Recession, and I personally prioritize keeping our employees employed and paid on time. I want us to take the long view, be ready, and protect our employees for what may be coming. 

This is why I supported a short-term freeze on hiring. I wanted us to reevaluate our plans and be fiscally conservative. The board received the superintendent’s hiring plan on Friday (April 10th). The plan includes 9 new positions (including 2 that were new last year but never filled) and 21 existing positions open due to retirements and resignations. I support hiring some of these positions as soon as possible. For others, I think the board needs to take a wait and see approach. I sincerely hope that we are able to hire every one of these positions before the start of the next school year. It is my hope that the board will work together tonight to lead the community by prioritizing what needs to be done and cautiously moving forward with the goal of reducing the harm our community and our employees will face in the coming months and years. 

I want to close by again pleading with the citizens of Mahomet-Seymour to not allow the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that certain elements of our community are peddling in order to bolster their own personal ego. Listen to the words of the board by watching the meetings on Youtube. Read the coverage in our reputable local news sources, the Mahomet Daily and the Mahomet Citizen. Engage the members of the board directly by email. But, please, PLEASE, do not get your summaries and information about the board from rumor mills. As Dr. Schultz pointed out, that is a flawed strategy for watching local government as well as national government and will only feed division. 

-Ken Keefe
Mahomet-Seymour School Board Member