Geneva High School expansion will have to wait

Geneva voters won't be asked anytime soon for money to expand Geneva High School.

The Geneva school board decided Monday night to not go to a referendum in the spring for its $95 million plan. (The district would have asked for $85 million; the other $10 million would have come from funds approved in a 2007 referendum that authorized building two new elementary schools and renovating other schools.)

The board did not take an official vote, but members were asked for their opinions. All seven said they would not support expansion now, because of the faltering economy and because of the amount of debt the district already carries.

Audience members were appreciative.

"I was led to believe, by neighborhood rumor, that this board was hellbent on going for referendum," said Patrick Murphy of Bridgeport Lane.

The board considered proceeding with the referendum in April 2009; phasing the construction, with some to be paid for out of a 2009 bond sale and some in 2010; or waiting until 2010 to ask voters for the money.

"We do feel very strongly that 2009 is a favorable time to buy construction services and give us the best value," said Kurt Tellschow from Bovis Lend-Lease, the district's construction consultant.

But Trustee Susan Shivers, citing statistics about the local economy, said, "My opinion is what we need to do is take the plan that was proposed, put it on the shelf in the closet, way up high in the back."

Shivers has previously questioned what she thinks are luxuries in the plans for the high school, such as constructing a larger auditorium and putting artificial turf on Burgess Field.

"I just simply cannot accept what I consider to be a wish list at this point and not absolute necessities," she said.

Trustee Autumn Burns warned that just because enrollment growth has slowed from what was predicted doesn't mean that the district will never have to expand the school. Geneva High has about 1,950 students now; it was built to hold 2,000.

A 2006 master facilities plan estimated that the high school could have 2,500 students when the district is fully built out, which it expected to happen by the mid-2010s. But the last major subdivision proposed for the district, the Settlements of LaFox, has been delayed by the bad housing market.

"Know that we are going to have to do something at some point, and it is going to be painful," she told residents in the audience.

A financial analysis by William Blair and Co., presented recently, estimated that the owners of a $250,000 home would pay at least $40 more for every $1,000 on their overall tax bill, depending on how the district would structure the bond sales necessary to obtain the money.