Questions worth asking in Dist. 203
The recently released "scientific" facilities survey from School District 203 needs to be carefully reviewed. First, the validity of the results is questionable based on the statistical inconsistencies as follows.
1. There are approximately 60,000 registered voters in the district. It does not seem statistically possible that 25 percent or 100 people of the 400 (out of the 60,000) respondents could have also participated in the facilities program (1,000 attendees out of the 60,000). With a 4.9 percent sampling error, the expected outcome would be between four to eight people in the survey also taking part in the information sessions.
2. The enrollment at the two high schools is approximately equal. Yet 59 percent of the survey responders are from Naperville Central High School, again beyond the projected sampling error.
3. Forty-nine percent of the survey respondents had children while the Census set this number at 40 percent in 2005 in District 203.
These issues would be a good case study for the state champion Naperville North math program to examine. More importantly, there are several questions that were not asked such as:
Do you object to the district using the funds from the over-collection of taxes (from the 2002 referendum) for the facilities program? Better yet, do you simply object to the over-collection?
Should the district use the Cantera windfall for property tax relief instead of additional spending? Are you concerned that the district is understating the cost of the school building improvement program at $76 per year for the average homeowner, compared to the total cost of at least $1,300 per year when the over-collection and Cantera funds are included?
At the last referendum for facilities, then- Superintendent Clark stated that no additional buildings would be needed as long as the current facilities are maintained. Is part of the problem at Central caused by the failure of the administration to maintain their facilities?
Lastly, the district is already downplaying its own survey, it did not come out to support building a new Central despite statistical inaccuracies noted above. Does the district really want to compile facts and ask the voters for an unbiased answer?
Daniel Denys
Naperville