McLean County Times

McLean County Unit School District 5, Prairie Central Community Unit School District 8 and Olympia Community Unit School District 16 are area districts listed among those that received the lowest financial ratings in Illinois by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) for their 2018 finances.

ISBE started profiling the financial health of the state's school districts in 2003, using experts to evaluate five areas: fund-balance-to-revenue ratio, expenditure-to-revenue ratio, days cash on hand, percentage of short-term borrowing ability remaining, and percentage of long-term borrowing ability remaining. The results are combined into a score, which corresponds with one of four designations.

Districts that score between 1 and 2.61 are on "financial watch"; between 2.62 and 3.07 - "financial warning"; between 3.08 and 3.53 - "financial review" and between 3.54 and 4.00 - "financial recognition".

Twelve Illinois school districts fell into the lowest financial strength category. Another 33 were designated "early warning", 111 were under "financial review" and 695 achieved "financial recognition".

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200 unhealthiest Illinois school districts