St. Charles Dist. 303: Go for tax hike next November or April?

Time and the ability to dilute anti-tax voters could be key factors in the timing of a pending St. Charles Unit District 303 construction referendum.

Board members bantered with Rod Wright, a school referendum consultant, Monday night about whether November 2016 or April 2017 would be the best time to win approval for a tax increase. The board has not yet voted to pursue a referendum, but that step has seemed to be a foregone conclusion after a winter spent debating declining enrollment and looming financial perils with the community.

That engagement fueled a decision to eliminate one of the district's three middle schools (Haines) and upgrade the remaining middle schools (Wredling and Thompson).

Closing Haines will save money in the long term. That's a goal the school board has deemed worthy in the face of Illinois' ongoing budget impasse and various pushes to reroute school funding.

Improving Wredling and Thompson will require short-term new spending that will require getting some construction dollars from local taxpayers. The facilities at both schools will need to be upgraded to handle an influx of the former Haines students. That might involve a complete rebuild of Thompson.

Wright told the school board the November election will see a larger turnout because of the presidential contest at the top of the ballot. That turnout will help dilute the impact of voters who will cast ballots against any kind of tax increase.

In contrast, waiting until April 2017 will give the district added time to educate voters about why the district needs money. Superintendent Don Schlomann said he believes some local taxpayers are still confused about how the district went from talking about closing schools to save money to now planning to ask for more money.

"My intuition is the community is confused about what you did," Schlomann said. "We have to fix that before we do anything else. We have to give them a reason to say 'yes.'"

Wright said having community buy-in before you even put the question on the ballot is key to success.

"The very conservative people and the elderly are who tend to vote 'no' no matter what the conditions are," Wright said. "If that segment of the electorate, the highly conservative portion, is 10 percent of the registration, and you have a 20 percent turnout, they are half the vote. You might compare that to 10 percent of an 80 percent turnout in November."

With that in mind, Schlomann said the decision comes down to which option is stronger: having more time or going with a better election.

Board members debated the timing for a referendum late into Monday night. But board members asked several questions indicating concerns about having the community ready to make an educated choice in time for the start of early voting this fall. At the same time, board members expressed concerns about mingling a school board election with a tax increase question next April.