PARIS, Ill. (WCIA) — Two years to the day after the FBI raided their former superintendent’s residence, an Edgar County school district is attempting to revisit the county’s financial processes after discovering over $700,000 unaccounted for.
Mary Morgan Ryan, the current superintendent of Paris Union School District 95, stated that for the last six years, the district has not been receiving the full amount they were promised, and they are now investigating the cause. Superintendent Ryan explained that each year, the district requests funding from the county based on their budget needs, which is also submitted to the state for additional funding.
However, since 2018, she noted that the county has consistently sent them less than requested, resulting in a shortfall of nearly $750,000. In a report to the Board of Education, Ryan highlighted that this discrepancy has impacted the district’s daily functioning and hindered their capacity to repay loans taken in 2012 for the high school’s construction.
Ryan said she’s also worried they might not have been getting the right amount of money from the state. The Illinois State Board of Education has a formula to determine what they send school districts based on predicted revenue.
Since those were wrong, Ryan said they could have been getting less from them as well. She also said they’re working with the county to figure out why exactly the money came in under what it should have been. But Ryan said they’re in the early stages and, right now, aren’t certain about what’s causing it.
Ryan said the ball is now in the county’s courts since the school’s found the issue. Now, they will work to find out where the money is and how to cover the loss.
WCIA reached out to Edgar County for comment but didn’t hear back.
However, this isn’t the first time the Paris school district has seen money disappear. In 2023, the Illinois State Board of Education found more than $3 million in unauthorized use of government grants.
In that same year, the FBI searched former superintendent Jeremy Larson’s home since some of the money was federal. Larson was fired and the district set up a payment plan to repay the money.
