Effingham Unit 40 school board members reviewed the district’s 2025 Illinois State Report Card commendable designations for all six of its schools, along with its fiscal year 2025 audit from Glass and Shuffett during Monday’s meeting.
The Illinois State Board of Education recently released school report cards, which show how each school and each district in the state are doing based on several factors, including attendance, graduate rate and test scores. This year, each of Unit 40’s schools – Effingham Unit 40 Preschool, Early Learning Center, South Side Grade School, Central Grade School, Effingham Junior High School and Effingham High School – received a commendable designation.
While reviewing the report card, it was noted that the number of low-income students, the dropout rate, mobility, chronic absenteeism and chronic truancy all decreased compared to last year’s figures. The chronic absenteeism and truancy were lower than the state average, but both the mobility and dropout rate were higher than average in the state.
Also highlighted were the categories that grew from 2024’s report card: students learning English as a second language, students graduating in four years, ninth graders on track, Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) scores in third through the eighth grades and the number of students moving from third grade to fourth grade to fifth grade.
Unit 40 schools have higher three-year teacher retention rates, ACT English and Language Arts scores, ACT Math scores and Illinois Science Assessment scores than the Illinois average. ACT Science scores are below the state average for Effingham High School, but 2025 was the first year the district administered the test. In years prior, students took the SAT.
The board discussed how teachers are incorporating more ACT practice questions to try and familiarize the students with the ACT more since the test uses different strategies and techniques than the SAT.
Certified Public Accountant Doug Ess from Glass and Shuffett in Centralia presented the school district’s Fiscal Year 2025 audit, which covers July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. However, he noted that this year’s audit is different from previous ones because Glass and Shuffett only have financial statements of the audit and a draft of the federal program audit due to both the federal government shutdown and the slow processing time it normally takes.
Overall, the district is in good standing, even though it received its lowest score in five years of a 3.35 out of 4 from the Illinois State Board of Education.
The district lost 0.35 points because it has 179.73 days of cash on-hand, whereas ISBE encourages districts to have at least 180 days of cash on-hand. 0.3 was deducted because of the money the district borrowed in the spring to try and upgrade its facilities. If the district had repaid this debt in June instead of July, there wouldn’t have been a deduction because of the fiscal year’s timing.
Ess said the district’s finances are doing fine, but the main point he highlighted was the district’s expenditures outweighed its receipts by almost $3.2 million. This was mainly due to the district switching from self-funded health insurance to commercial health insurance, claims being behind and the district paying for both commercial insurance and self-funded insurance. Faculty and staff salaries and other benefits also contributed to the expenditures.
Meanwhile, Ethic and Regional Career Foundation (ERCF) Board of Directors member Norma Lansing presented an agreement with ERCF, Unit 40 and Creating Opportunities for Regional Employment (CORE) to provide a career-focused curriculum in collaboration with 16 regional school districts, local businesses and Lakeland College to expose both students and adults to different career pathways.
All courses are ISBE approved and dual credit. Unit 40 would act as the new administrator fiscal agent at no cost, and the district would be repaid for any expenditures.
“I think it’s awesome that we have the facility now. And exposure and getting the word out – I think – is one of the biggest hurdles,” said Unit 40 Board of Education President Jill Wendling. “If parents know about it, they can encourage their children to explore more career opportunities [and] educational opportunities through the program. We’re glad to help.”
Unit 40 hopes this agreement will take effect by mid-January.
The school board announced four new courses for the 2026-2027 school year: Environmental Science, Public Service and Safety Careers, Music and American History, and Early Childhood Care and Education. It also announced that high school graduation is scheduled for May 17, 2026 at 2 p.m.
The next Unit 40 Board meeting is scheduled for Dec. 15.