Regional Superintendent of Schools gives report on ROE 13
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WASHINGTON COUNTY — With the school year underway, Regional Superintendent of Schools Matt Renaud recently reported on Regional Office of Education #13.
Renaud said they represent 45 public schools. Within Washington County, they have Ashley, Irvington, Nashville High School and Nashville Grade School, Okawville (West Washington) and Oakdale for six districts in total. He said they also work with 11 recognized non-public schools and many homeschool parents and families and have about 20,000 students altogether in the four counties. He said in total, they represent about 1,750 students in Washington County.
Renaud reported that within ROE #13, there are about 1,500 active teachers and within Washington County, there are about 153 active teachers. He said they represent about 125-plus administrators and Washington County has over 40 administrators. He said there are 650 paraprofessionals within the four counties and there are also hundreds of non-certified, supportive personnel members across the four counties. He said ROE 13 is the second largest Regional Office of Education in the state by number of school districts.
Renaud said the office’s annual revenue last year was $15,687,292 for fiscal year 2025 and projects that this coming year for fiscal year 2026 the revenue will be about $17.7 million. He said for the annual budget, about $560,783 goes toward salaries for Washington County employees. He said Washington County’s budget request for fiscal year 2026 is $39,151 and that’s $1,088 less than they asked for last year. He said in the previous year, they asked for $3,895 less than fiscal year 2024.
Renaud reported that they’ve had a 0% letter request increase over the last two years and the total letter request for all four counties is $269,665. He said in comparison to all of the districts, Washington County schools generally perform very well academically and all Washington County school districts are on financial recognition and audits are very clean. He said they usually have a large amount of cash coming in, which is a very good stable position. He said all Washington County districts are fully recognized by the State of Illinois and are in good standing with statutory compliance in health life safety regulations.
Renaud said they also are allowed to promote other public interests and offer other programming to school districts in the form of grants and programs they write to help improve and enrich the kids across the four counties. He said they have 26 preschools they run across the four counties and usually serve between 500-700 students across the four counties. He said they have two preschools in Washington County: one in Ashley and one in Okawville. Renaud reported that they also have recently written for a new program called Birth to Three Prevention Initiative. He said Director Kelly Tate has been working with the Washington County Health Department and some others to help serve students. He said they can serve up to 250 students in that and so far this year, they’ve served 15 students in Washington County.
Renaud said they also have alternative and SAFE schools – one in Mount Vernon and one in Centralia – and the one in Centralia serves Washington County students. He said right now they have seven students from Washington County in alternative schools. He said last year they served 995 students regarding truancy, and Washington County has the lowest number out of all four counties. He said he suspects this is half of what’s really out there, but they served 22 students in truancy last year from Washington County and five truancy students went to Review Board and two went to the state’s attorney.
“We appreciate our state’s attorneys and how supportive they are,” he said.
Renaud said they also serve Child and Family Connections in 10 counties and represent 1,700 kids across 10 counties: Clinton, Jefferson, Marion, Washington, Franklin, Wayne, Madison, Monroe, St. Clair and Randolph. He said they’re currently serving 30 Washington County students in Child and Family Connections. He said last year they started three brand new programs and he is pretty excited about all those for students who are falling through the cracks in a range of situations.
He said one is the Student Success Program, which is a life coaching program for serving students in 14 districts. He said one is in Washington County in Okawville and last year in total they served about 500 students in that new program. He said they also started something called high needs ALOP and served 23 students last year. He said that’s a remote program for students with a medical condition who can’t go to school for some reason and schools aren’t able to serve them well. He said they have a teacher who will serve them remotely and are serving one student from Washington County right now in that program.
In addition, Renaud said they have a seniors plus dropout program for students who didn’t finish and have not finished their GED. He said they enroll students back in their homeschool roster and support them remotely to help them finish their high school degree. He said they have 16 in the program already this year and have one from Washington County. He said over the past year, John Consolino and he have been working on a transition plan. Renaud will be retiring on June 30, 2026, and his assistant Consolino has been appointed to fill the last year of his term. He said Consolino is currently circulating his nominating petitions to run for Regional Superintendent of Schools in the election of 2027.
