District overview
Waltonville Community Unit School District 1
Funding structure, how it compares to peers, and where major projects stand.
How does a 300-student rural district pay for its schools?
Waltonville CUSD 1 serves about 300 students in Jefferson County, Illinois, in two schools: Waltonville Grade School (pre-K to 8) and Waltonville High School. A seven-member Board of Education, elected at large, meets monthly, usually on the fourth Thursday. Superintendent Michael Denault runs the district with two principals. Local property taxes bring in about $1.8 million a year. Half of the district's $60.7 million taxable value is farmland, and the district is under Illinois' property tax cap. The rest comes from state aid and federal grants, such as the rural schools (SRSA) grant that is paying for new intercoms.
Taxes come mostly from farms
Farm property makes up $30.4 million of the $60.7 million taxable value. The 2025 levy brings in about $1.79 million.
Some funds are shrinking
The amended FY26 budget expects the Transportation Fund to fall from about $560,000 to $323,000, while the Educational Fund grows to about $3.3 million.
Buildings and buses
State maintenance grants pay for new windows and parking lot work. The district bought used activity buses, raised driver pay and added a $1,500 sign-on bonus as drivers resigned.
Leadership locked in, then reopened
In April 2026 the superintendent got a five-year contract. In October the board was set to replace it with a new one.
Nearly every vote in the minutes is unanimous, and the district posts its agendas, minutes, budgets and levy. An 'unbalanced' budget label is common for small Illinois districts and is not the same as a financial emergency.
Where the district stands
Context: NCES count for two schools.
Combined rate about 2.95 per $100 of value; the district is under the tax cap.
Down from $559,806 a year earlier.
Major projects
Window replacement at both schools
re-awardedOld windows at the grade school and high school are being replaced. The first contractor never ordered the windows, so the board cancelled that contract and hired Dan's Glass.
- Maintenance grant application approved
- Mt. Vernon Glass contracts approved ($20,058 and $34,991)
- Contracts cancelled; Dan's Glass hired ($34,550 HS, $29,940 GS)
Funding
State school maintenance grant
7.5 acres next to school property
purchase authorizedThe board authorized the superintendent to buy up to 7.5 acres next to the school for up to $72,000. No use for the land has been stated.
- Board authorizes purchase
Funding
Not stated
Intercom upgrades and school resource officer
in progressNew intercoms for the grade school ($19,200) and high school ($10,100), plus a proposed school resource officer agreement with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
- Intercom upgrades approved
- SRO agreement on the agenda
Funding
Federal SRSA grant (intercoms)
Keeping buses running
ongoingSeveral bus drivers resigned in 2026. The board raised route pay to $50, added a $1,500 sign-on bonus, and traded a 2021 bus toward two used activity buses (net $8,146).
- Used 14-passenger bus bought ($29,000)
- Driver pay raised
- $1,500 sign-on bonus
- Bus trade-in approved
Funding
Transportation Fund
Recent news
Board agendas (Google Docs) and approved minutes (scanned PDFs) from the district's public Google Drive folders, the FY2026 budget forms, the 2025 tax levy computation, the 2026-27 handbooks, and the meeting schedules, from October 2025 to October 2026.
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