By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

While the school year has begun across the county, the State missed its second payment this month.

Brian Dukes, Superintendent of District 429, said while the State is behind more than $350,000 for this year and around half a million dollars for last year, staff is moving forward with the hopes lawmakers in Springfield get it all figured out.

“This is the first time since the Great Depression that we’ve had this situation. Just to put a little bit of history in perspective of where we’re at, but that first day of school we had all our staff together. I said, ‘If you get an opportunity, reach out to a legislator, tell your family to do that, then after that, stop thinking about it.’ I said that’s not our teacher’s problem right now. They need to just be excited to be back in the classroom, get the kids all excited to be there, but, ‘Don’t worry about Springfield. I’ll let you know when it’s time to worry again about Springfield. For the time being, let’s just enjoy the kids being back and we’re just excited to have them as we’re wrapping up our second week of school,’” Dukes said.

The full forum with Dukes is available in the podcast section at WJEZ.com.