Kankakee Times

Pembroke Community Consolidated School District 259 is one of the few school districts in Illinois with no long-term debt, according to Illinois State Board of Education 2016 financial reports obtained by the Kankakee Times. The reports are as of 2016.

State law allows Pembroke CCSD 259 to borrow a total of $880,434.

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, Pembroke 259, an elementary school district, had an EAV of $12,759,912, according to ISBE.

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