Hadley tours part of District 41's $24.2 million referendum effort
Glen Ellyn Elementary District 41 officials are giving public tours of Hadley Junior High to draw attention to the school's aging portable classrooms they want to replace with a building addition as part of a $24.2 million plan.
The first session at the school Wednesday night drew a small group of about two dozen people and a few opponents of the plan that also calls for infrastructure projects in four elementary schools.
The district will seek voter approval in April to borrow $24.2 million. If the measure passes, the district would earmark about $9.2 million to build a two-story, 10-classroom addition at Hadley.
Principal and interest payments on the debt would cost the district an estimated total of $40.87 million over 20 years. The district expects to pay off the loan in 2036.
If voters reject the measure, the district's share of the property tax bill for the owner of a $373,200 home - the average in Glen Ellyn - would decrease by $248 because of the retirement of existing debt.
The tax bill for that homeowner would decrease only by about $106 if voters approved the borrowing plan.
Peter Ladesic, a village trustee and founding member of a group that opposes the referendum request, called for the district to instead dip into reserves and cut spending to fund some of the improvements. Ladesic declined to identify the other members of the group, which has a website, Votenod41.com.
He also aired concerns that property taxes are "driving people out of town."
"I think that we do need to remove the portables for a number of reasons, but that can be done by them writing a check for it now," said Ladesic, a homebuilder who sat on a task force that studied the district's facilities over nine months last year.
The district has spent about $7 million in reserves and issued another $7 million in debt to build brick-and-mortar additions and remove portable classrooms at the four elementary schools.
The remaining portable units at Hadley raise security issues as students move to and from the main building, Principal Steve Diveley said during the tour. The school also must remove students from the units, some of which were already used when the district purchased them, in sustained winds of 35 miles per hour.
Hadley also would get a new bus lane on school property to alleviate traffic on Glencoe Street if voters approve the district's funding request.
Elsewhere in the district, the loans would fund roof repairs and bathroom renovations to improve accessibility for students with special needs in all five schools. Those items were listed in a state-mandated audit of buildings the district must complete every decade.
The district also wants to build a more secure entrance at Churchill Elementary to funnel visitors into the front office.
Crews would break ground on some of the projects as early as spring 2018.
The district is not seeking funding for space for a full-day kindergarten program after that project garnered lukewarm support in a survey of about 1,500 residents and district employees.
"What the administration is committed to do is to continue to look at that and say, 'How could we do full-day kindergarten? Could it be done on a limited basis? Could it be done on a lottery basis like other districts?' The conversation is not dead by any stretch of the imagination," Superintendent Paul Gordon told the gathering.
The district will hold the remaining two Q&A sessions at Hadley at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, and Tuesday, March 7.