Lake County Gazette

Lifelong Lake Forest resident and current District 115 school board secretary Ted Moorman loves Lake Forest and hopes to gain re-election to the board.

Moorman said during a recent forum held by the League of Women Voters that he graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1977 and both of his children attended Lake Forest schools.

"I've served on the board for the last seven years," Moorman said. "People have likened me to being the fiscal conscience of the board. Others would just call me 'Scrooge.'"

Moorman said the school board provides students with all of the funding necessary to be successful.

"We are one of the highest-funded schools in the state with $25,000 funding provided per student," Moorman said. "I was successful in convincing the board to switch from our longtime funding policy of just asking for the max each year to only asking for half this year. I actually advocated for no increase at all in our property tax levy."

Moorman said that over 26% of property tax bills goes directly to Lake Forest High School.

"We have the responsibility to treat your taxes reverently and only ask for what we need to provide the outstanding education that our students do receive," Moorman said.

He told the forum that his three priorities are returning students to school, hiring a new superintendent and maintaining a fiscally responsible operation. In a sense, however, Moorman said that the limited classroom time due to the pandemic has actually worked in the district's favor fiscally.

"We've already invested in the short-term aspect, we've put mitigations in place for proper PPE here," Moorman said. "I think having students in five days a week isn't going to be much more expensive — we've already made the investment, we still have a solid AAA bond rating with money in the bank and, actually, you kind of save money when your lights are turned off and very few people are in the schools.

"Long-term funding, again, we rely on our taxpayers," Moorman continued. "I don't think we have to lean on them any more heavily."

Perhaps the board's most important agenda item, Moorman told the forum, will be in developing its relationship with the incoming superintendent. 

"We need to build a relationship with a new superintendent, which is going to be really important to get off on the right foot," Moorman said. "I think the administration and the teachers often butted heads; I think we need to build all of these relationships so we can all work together."