Three-fourths of Lincoln-Way 210 didn't exist when the millenium turned. Although the district dates back to 1951, according to the official district history, it was one school, now known as Lincoln-Way Central, for the next half-century. The housing boom of the 1990s brought droves of new families to the Mokena, Frankfort and New Lenox area, filling the five local elementary school districts. Eventually, those kids became high-school aged, requiring the district quadruple. Lincoln-Way East opened in the fall of 2001, Lincoln-Way North in August 2008 and Lincoln-Way West a year later. …

Following in a sad tradition set by Mokena 159 and more recently Summit Hill 161, Lincoln-Way High School District 210 is the latest area school district to announce possible budget cuts and fee hikes in the wake of cuts and late payments from the state. The district's projections, as pulled from the pdf document attached to this article, say that without some changes, the district's Educational Fund will be nearly $4.8 million in the hole by the 2016-17 school year. The district is considering a slate of fee hikes and cost cuts to try to make up for the budget shortfall. Cuts, some people …

The U.S. Census Bureau collects a lot more information than just the population. Here are some of the data for Mokena, New Lenox and Frankfort to see how the three towns compare. To see more census information for the towns, follow these links: Frankfort Mokena New Lenox Growth (2000-2010) Frankfort was the big winner in growth, shooting up by 71.1 percent between the last two censuses. New Lenox increased by 37.3 percent and Mokena by 28.5 percent. Education Another first place for Frankfort, where 53.1 percent of the people 25 or older had bachelor's degrees or higher between 2005 and 2009…

Declining enrollment at schools can mean empty halls and reductions in staff and, in the cases of Mokena 159's MIS and Summit Hill's Mary Drew, could contribute to closing schools. Current Summit Hill projections for the 2012-13 school year will have Mary Drew Elementary at 359 students below capacity. Mokena is preparing to graduate 239 eighth-graders in the spring. The next fall, only 130 kindergartners will be coming to replace them. Smaller classes will eventually make their way to Lincoln-Way 210, a district where the most-recently opened school, Lincoln-Way West was at less than half of…

Last week, StatShot found that local schoolteachers are making more—in one district, 37 percent more—than they would have if their salaries from the year 2000 were in line with inflation. Now let's see if the same can be said of the school districts' administrators. The method is the same as last week. We looked at the five Lincoln-Way feeder district's average salaries from 2000 and now, then used the Consumer Price Index from the Chicago-Gary-Kenosha Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area to adjust the 2000 salaries to Nov. 2011 dollars, the most recent figures available. The districts…

Local schoolteachers are making more—in one district, 37 percent more—than they would have if their salaries from the year 2000 were in line with inflation. This week's StatShot is comparing teacher salaries at the turn of the year to the turn of the millenium, adjusting the salaries from 2000 into 2012 dollars and seeing what's higher. The districts' average teacher salaries came from the Illinois State Board of Education. Inflation numbers came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Salaries outpaced inflation at all five Lincoln-Way feeder districts, ranging from a 5-percent difference for …

Search out Patch Places directory for more information on the following districts: Mokena 159 New Lenox 122 Summit Hill 161 Frankfort 157-C

This week's StatShot looks at the percentage of teachers in local elementary school districts who have a master's degree or higher. All data come from the 2011 Illinois State Board of Education District Report Cards for each district.   Mokena 159 Summit Hill 161 New Lenox 122 Frankfort 157-C Manhattan 114 State Average 59.3 60.4 57.4 55.9 36.6 60.4

This week's StatShot looks at the overall performance on the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests from the five Lincoln-Way 210 feeder districts. The bars in the attached graphs represent percent Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores categorized as meeting or exceeding the Illinois Learning Standards for the 2010-11 school year and the 2009-10 school year. The scores they represent are below. The Illinois Standards Achievement Test, or ISAT, is administered to third- through eighth-graders, with reading and math tested every year. Science is also tested in fourth and seventh grade. All …

This week's StatShot looks at the pupil-teacher ratios at the five local elementary school districts that feed into the Lincoln-Way 210 High School District. All data come from the 2011 Illinois State Board of Education District Report Cards for each district. Locally, every 210 feeder district is above the state average of 18.8 elementary school students per teacher except for Frankfort 157-C. That district has 17.9 students per teacher. Mokena 159 has the highest ratio, with 23.3 students per teacher.   Mokena 159 New Lenox 122 Manhattan 114 Summit Hill 161 Frankfort 157-C State Average 23.…

This week's StatShot looks at the average years of teacher experience from the five Lincoln-Way 210 feeder districts. Layoffs drive the average teacher experience higher, as schools lay off non-tenured teachers with fewer years of experience first. Similarly, retirements lower the average teacher experience. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Mokena 159 12.7 13.7 14.5 15.2 17.1 Summit Hill 161 10.5 10.3 10.9 11.2 12.3 Frankfort 157-C 11.4 11.2 12.1 12.9 13.4 New Lenox 122 9.2 9.2 9.6 10.4 11.2 Manhattan 114 14.6 12.4 12.2 10.7 11.7 State Average 12.9 12.4 12.5 12.7 13.2 All information is from the 2011…

This week's StatShot looks at the overall performance on all state tests from the five Lincoln-Way 210 feeder districts. The bars in the attached graph represent percent state test scores categorized as meeting or exceeding the Illinois Learning Standards for the 2010-11 school year. The scores they represent are below. All information is from the 2011 Illinois State Board of Education District Report Cards. Mokena 159 88.1 percent Summit Hill 161 92.1 percent Frankfort 157-C 92.4 percent New Lenox 122 87.7 percent Manhattan 114 89.7 percent State Average 76.5 percent

Last week, StatShot looked at the average teacher salaries for the five districts that feed into Lincoln-Way 210 high schools going back more than a decade.  So how much are their bosses paid? READ: Are Mokena Teachers Lowest Paid in L-Way? These salaries are the mean average, meaning high salaries and low salaries are evened out. These numbers do not represent the salary of any individual administrator. To look up the salary of any individual teacher or administrator in Illinois going back to the 2000-01 school year, download that year's Teacher Service Record from the Illinois State Board …

Short answer: No. It spends more. Last week's StatShot looked at the per-pupil instructional spend of each of the five Lincoln-Way 210 feeder districts. That's the amount just to teach each student. The full per-pupil cost of running a school district is a different number, one that is not shown here. Here's how Lincoln-Way's per-pupil instructional spending has increased each of the last five years for which data is available. 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Lincoln-Way 210 $4,690 $4,752 $5,069 $5,741 $6,133 State Average $5,366 $5,567 $5,808 $6,103 $6,483 Each report contains the …

This week's StatShot shows how much each of the five elementary districts that send their students to Lincoln-Way 210 spent per student on teaching during the 2008-09 school year. Bear in mind, this is just the money spent on "the direct costs of teaching pupils or the interactions between teachers and pupils." The full per-pupil cost of running a school district is a different number, one that is not shown here. This information is from each district's 2010 Illinois District Report Card, the most recent report available for all five districts: Mokena 159 $3,841 Summit Hill 161 $4,598 …

In this inaugural StatShot, we look at the local resources each of the five school districts that feed into Lincoln-Way 210 have per pupil. Each year the Illinois State Board of Education sets a dollar amount it thinks is the minimum it takes to give a kid a decent education for a year (currently $6,119). The state then uses that number to help figure how much aid to give. The less a district can cover on its own, the more state aid it gets. Here's how much each L-Way feeder district could provide each student. (Read the comments below for discussion on why we use the word "could.") These are…