Chambana Sun

St. Joseph Community Consolidated School District 169 has $8,183,710 in debt, which is $5,223 per household in the district, according to Illinois State Board of Education 2016 financial reports obtained by the Chambana Sun.

Because state law allows the district to borrow a total of $8,756,057, St Joseph CCSD 169 has reached 93.5 percent of its debt capacity.

The state limits how much school districts can borrow, capping their debt at a percentage of the district's property wealth, as determined by county and township assessors.

Community unit school districts are able to borrow up to 13.8 percent of their total property value, or Equalized Assessed Value (EAV). Elementary school districts are able to borrow up to 6.9 percent of their EAV.

However, school districts exceeding these debt caps are not punished or sanctioned, as the state has no enforcement mechanism in place.

In 2015, St. Joseph 169, an elementary school district, had an EAV of $126,899,374, according to ISBE.

The following table ranks debt held by Champaign County school districts.