Dist. 303 plans now have prices

For the past couple of weeks, St. Charles Unit District 303 officials have promoted a new menu of tempting improvements to all 17 buildings in the district. And, like a fancy restaurant, the descriptions have sounded appetizing: lower class sizes, all-day kindergarten, revamped or rebuilt schools. But just like a five-star eatery, there were no prices on the menu.

On Thursday night, Superintendent Don Schlomann delivered the bill to taxpayers.

Unless they choose a more a la carte option, taxpayers are looking at more than $292 million of work to fund. The projects are all based on feedback from residents about school improvements they'd like to see and a building-by-building evaluation of possible upgrades.

Schlomann just completed a full round of presentations at each school detailing the possible direct impact of changes.

"In every case, people brought up the idea of cost," Schlomann said. "Can we afford it?"

The answer will depend on what residents deem affordable, especially in the current economy. The funding scenarios range from having taxpayers pay no additional dollars and just changing teaching priorities to paying as much as $644 more a year to the district for building improvements at every school, smaller class sizes and a new all-day kindergarten program.

"This is not about schools being in disrepair," Schlomann said. "This is about meeting the needs of the community with buildings that were built when older laws were in place." Indeed, many of the suggested changes are based on ongoing issues at some schools with access for the disabled, proper ventilation and basic heating and cooling.

The district laid out six scenarios Thursday that start with an all-inclusive plan that would fund all the construction and program priority changes such as all-day kindergarten and smaller class sizes. It is, as expected, the most expensive plan. The scenarios get cheaper from there, but also drop more and more of the improvements.

The second most expensive plan does all the building improvements and all-day kindergarten, but keeps class sizes at current levels. The next level down drops all-day kindergarten as well and just does the building improvements.

Moving one level cheaper, residents could opt to just have building improvements to the middle and high schools. Even cheaper than that are building improvements to just the elementary schools. And, finally, there's the option of no major infrastructure changes at all, but rather a change to program priorities that places greater emphasis on things like gifted education and teaching foreign languages at earlier grade levels.

The district will let the options marinate with taxpayers for a few weeks and then ask for some feedback on direction at a community forum on Nov. 19.

The options

Approximate amount the owner of a $300,000 home would pay in additional taxes to St. Charles Unit District 303 in each improvement scenario in 2010:

Scenario A: "The All-Inclusive Plan" - $644

Scenario B: "The Building Improvements Plus All-Day Kindergarten Plan" - $372

Scenario C: "The Building Improvements Only Plan" - $312

Scenario D: "The Middle/High Schools Only Plan" - $207

Scenario E: "The Elementary Only Plan" - $154

Scenario F: "The Just Do What You Can Plan" - $0