St. Charles school referendum forums close with mixed preferences
If St. Charles school officials are going to spend millions of dollars to improve middle schools, the taxpayers who provide that money don't want a Band-Aid solution.
That seemed to be the clearest take-away from three community forums with 360 people on a pending referendum. The final of the three forums concluded Thursday night, where nearly 140 people once again had a chance to take three separate votes on three options school board members are debating.
The first option is a $15 million proposal that would mostly provide added space only via a new wing on Thompson Middle School. The space would accommodate an influx of students into both Thompson and Wredling that comes from closing Haines Middle School. Closing Haines would save the district about $2.4 million a year. District officials say they need that operational savings to absorb any funding hits they may take as a result of the state's budget crisis.
On Thursday, only 33 percent of people said they would support this cheapest option to makes the Haines closure viable. The vote total was similar at the other two public forums.
What is less clear is which of the two remaining options the community most favors. At all three forums, the support for options two and three were nearly identical. On Thursday, option two received the most support, but it was only by 5 percentage points.
Option two is a $35 million proposal to rebuild most of Thompson. About 71 percent of the audience liked that idea. Option three is a $50 million option to tear down the school and start from scratch with every facet fully modernized. About 66 percent of the audience also liked that idea, presenting an either/or scenario for the school board.
The board will host a special meeting Monday night to determine a course of action for the referendum. It'll have to decide if the views of about 360 attendees, many of whom were district parents or teachers, adequately represents the taxpayer population to feel confident any tax increase placed on the ballot can be approved.
District officials have been careful to describe the proposals as a "contribution" rather than a tax increase. That's because the ballot question is being timed to coincide with the retirement of all the bond debt the district incurred to build St. Charles North High School. With that retirement will come an estimated $600 drop in the tax bill for the owner of a $300,000 home.
The financial impact of the three referendum versions ranges from a $45 reduction to that $600 savings in option one to a $150 reduction to that $600 savings in option three.
Seth Chapman, the district's assistant superintendent for business services, let forum attendees know doing nothing to address the middle schools is not an option. Even with no referendum, or in a failed tax increase scenario, the district will spend all or some of $30 million in savings it has on the middle schools.
"There's a reason the status quo is not up here as an option," Chapman said. "These facilities have to continue to be maintained appropriately. The choice really comes down to a couple of factors. How much of that $600 are you willing to contribute? And what do you want the middle schools to look like as a resource over the next 20 years?"