Single-school districts have higher administrative expenses per child

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Just 11 students make up the entire 7th grade in Lake County's Rondout School District 72, where the lone school has but 161 students.

The cost to taxpayers: $23,449 per child, the highest of all elementary districts in Illinois, the most recent data show — and more than twice the state per-pupil average.

Joliet's one-school Union District 81 has even fewer students (111) and has spent more than $2,000 per child on administrative costs alone. The school board president's wife and children have been on the district payroll, in cafeteria, maintenance and bus driver jobs.

And in Cook County's one-school Lemont Township High School District 210, the superintendent was paid about $270,000 last year to oversee the 1,500-student school.

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