By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – Local legislators and school superintendents met in Bloomington Thursday morning with new State Superintendent of Schools Tony Smith.

State Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) said the group wanted to give Smith a feel for the schools districts in McLean County.

“I think those school districts represent a good cross section of the representative districts around the state,” said Barickman. “We’ve got two massive districts in (District) 87 and Unit 5, but we also have rural communities around here.”

LeRoy Superintendent Gary Tipsord said they also wanted to share some of the barriers to local district’s success, such as the public school funding formula. Most legislators and superintendents, including Barickman and Tipsord, agree the formula is broken. Tipsord believed schools have reached the limit of how much they can adjust to fit the current formula.

“The districts in McLean County are probably 70 to 80 percent reliant on local resources. I don’t know that our local resources can go much beyond that,” said Tipsord. “I think that was one of the points that we tried to make today is: We’ve innovated to the degree that we can.”

Tipsord is on board with Barickman’s evidence based funding legislation, which hasn’t gained much ground in the General Assembly. Barickman said politics need to be put aside so a solution can be found.

“Parents today I don’t think care about the politics around why we haven’t created a solution. They just want to see us get the job done,” Barickman said.

Barickman added Smith is doing a good job of going around the state and listening to the concerns of different school districts.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].