Evolution of the Lake Land College District

On September 24, 1966, voters in 13 school districts voted by more than a 3-to-1 ratio to form a community college district in East Central Illinois. Residents voted 9,560 to 2,946 in favor of the proposal. The original 13 school districts were: Casey, Charleston, Cowden/Herrick, Cumberland, Kansas, Mattoon, Neoga, Oakland, Shelbyville, Stewardson-Strasburg, Tower Hill, Westfield, and Windsor.

Other districts were annexed into the college district throughout the years. They are: Martinsville in May, 1967, Beecher City, Effingham, and Teutopolis in June, 1967, Grove Elementary District (northern Newton area) in June, 1968, Sullivan in July, 1969, Dieterich in July, 1972, Altamont and Farina-LaGrove in July, 1973, Bethany, Brownstown, Findlay, Marshall, North Clay County, Paris Crestwood, Ramsey, and Shiloh (Hume/Brocton/Redmon) in July, 1974, Arthur, Lovington, and Pana joined in August, 1974, and Paris Union 95 joined in July, 1990. The residents in the very northeast corner of the Vandalia district petitioned into Lake Land from Kaskaskia in July, 1974.

A ten year history written in 1977 states, “The successful effort to encourage annexation can be attributed to many factors, but prime among these were the reputation of the College, the concern of the faculty, interest shown by the counselors to students, the first impression of visitors to campus, and the financial responsibility of the Board of Trustees which has resulted in comparatively low tax and tuition rates.”

The College district consists of 4,000 square miles with an approximate population of 190,000. The nearly 308-acre campus hosts nine major buildings plus seven supportive buildings, two campus ponds, a 152-acre agriculture land laboratory, and a 30,000-volume Virgil H. Judge Learning Resource Center. More than 20 off-campus sites throughout the district offer classes.

The first Board of Trustees established a tax rate of 10 cents for the Education Fund and 2.5 cents for the Building Operations and Maintenance Fund.

When all areas of the state were forced into community college districts by state law, legislation had been enacted which established 23.5 cents as the combined minimum tax rate for Education and Building Operations and Maintenance.

Lake Land still has the original rate of 2.5 cents per one hundred dollars assessed valuation for Building Operations and Maintenance. The Education Fund rate was raised to 15.5 cents in 1979.

September 16, 1966

Original 13 Districts

May, 1967

June, 1967

June, 1968

July, 1969

July, 1972

July, 1973

July, 1974

August, 1974

July, 1990

Maps of Illinois Community College Districts