Mount Prospect District 57 tax hike request will go to voters
Voters in Mount Prospect School District 57 will be asked next year to approve a tax increase.
The school board Thursday approved a referendum in the March 20 election that will ask voters to consider an 85-cent increase in the tax rate to 3.60 per $100 of equalized assessed valuation.
It would equate to $238 per year per $100,000 of home value. But that figure could be lower with exemptions.
School board President Joe Sonnefeldt, speaking to residents at the meeting, told residents the district over 20 years went from having high reserves to seeing its financial situation erode in the wake of growing enrollment, the extra cost of reopening Westbrook School and the impact of the Great Recession - as well as a previous school board's decision not to put a referendum on the ballot.
"We knew this day would come, because even since 2011, enrollment has continually increased, more than 10 percent since 2011," he said.
Sonnefeldt said the cost of educating a student in District 57 and the district's tax rate are both lower than neighboring districts'.
"It is time for the voters of District 57 to make a decision. Are they ready to support additional revenue for their schools? Or are they satisfied to allow the trend of declining fund balances to continue? And are they willing to allow for additional cuts?"
Superintendent Elaine Aumiller has said cuts in the 2018-19 school year alone could amount to $850,000 if the tax increase is not approved. That could mean eliminating classroom teachers, classroom assistants and assistant principals, she said.
School board member Vicki Chung said Thursday the issue at the heart of the board's decision was whether the board should make cuts next year.
"Because these cuts are so massive, and because we as a board are accountable to the residents and taxpayers of our district, we don't want to make those cuts without community input," Chung said.
"And so I think tonight's vote about whether or not to put the referendum on the ballot is really about giving that choice about whether or not to make the cuts over to the voters."
Several residents weighing in on the issue before the vote indicated support for the tax increase.
"These cuts would hurt generations of Mount Prospect children," said John Krupa, father of a first-grader at Westbrook and the chairman of a citizens committee that favors the tax increase. "They would also cause home values to plummet. Young families would move out of Mount Prospect. Buyers would avoid Mount Prospect altogether."