St. Charles schools commit $3 million to Summit 303

St. Charles school board members Monday took the unusual step of earmarking $3 million to be spent however the public sees fit.

The catch: spending recommendations must relate to facilities improvements and come through District 303's ongoing "community engagement" program, known as Summit 303.

"We're trying to demonstrate how important (Summit 303) is and how committed we are to the recommendations that come out of it," school board President Kathy Hewell said in an interview. "I just hope people will look at this now as an even better opportunity to get involved because there's some real teeth in the board's commitment."

Summit 303 is a series of monthly public forums that began last November under Superintendent Don Schlomann. A public relations firm is being paid $11,000 a month to put on the program, which is expected to culminate later this year with a list of priorities that taxpayers want the school board to address.

Before Monday, district officials had not committed to spend any money based solely on the outcome of Summit 303. Schlomann described the board's decision as "a very big commitment."

According to Hewell, officials settled on the $3 million figure after the district received $2.8 million in unexpected state funds this year, and saw several other expenses come in well below original projections. Of the total amount, about $1 million was previously being set aside to complete or expand air conditioning systems in five elementary schools in the upcoming school year.

On Monday, Hewell said the air conditioning improvements are still on the table, should Summit 303 participants decide it's a priority as they've indicated in the past. But that doesn't sit well with the district's teachers union, which has been clamoring for cooler classroom temperatures for years and received public support from several parents.

"Everyone was extremely disappointed" to learn the board was changing course, union President Pam Turriff said. "I feel strongly that the public has already spoken and said they want to go ahead and start putting air conditioning in buildings."

Attendance at Summit 303 meetings has ranged from a couple hundred people to more than 500, according to the district. Some 32,000 people live in the city of St. Charles, although District 303's borders extend beyond city limits in many areas.

Hewell said she didn't think turning over such a large sum of money to Summit 303 would alienate taxpayers who don't participate.

"We're still doing what we're elected to do; this is just the methodology we are using at this point in time," she said. "We can't count on additional unbudgeted funding like this every year, so we're trying to do the best we can with it."