Endorsement: Grant High School referendum

Residents of Grant High School District 124 will be asked on Feb. 5 to approve the sale of bonds to pay for a $38.5 million building expansion. District officials say the project is needed to accommodate student enrollment, which is expected to rise from the current 1,745 to a projected 2,308 by 2014. School capacity is now 1,750.

The general obligation bond sale would fund construction of 21 classrooms, state-of-the-art science labs, an art studio, family and consumer science labs, and a 2,600-seat activity center/field house. It would be done in two phases and be completed by the 2010-11 school year.

Previous growth-related building projects were in 2000 and 2005.

If the bond sale is approved, district officials say it would be timed to replace existing bonds being retired. What that means is instead of the district tax rate dropping -- which would result in the owner of a $200,000 house seeing a savings of about $132 next year -- it would remain unchanged to fund the construction project.

The need for more classrooms is not surprising, given the Fox Lake area is in the county's high-growth northwest corridor. District officials say their annual student growth averages 6 percent to 8 percent, and booming Big Hollow Elementary District 38 is one of its feeder districts.

The district has shown prudence in managing finances. Officials point to annual balanced budgets since 1997, using builder impact fees to fund a 2005 building expansion project that provided a library and classrooms, and creating $3.2 million in savings by refinancing debt. While some stopgap measures, such as use of mobile classrooms, could be taken initially to deal with enrollment increases, district officials insist a building referendum will eventually be needed. Waiting to do that, they contend, would surely result in a tax rate increase, and higher construction costs.

We agree it would be best to pursue the building expansion now ahead of enrollment increases. Being able to do that without raising the tax rate above the current level warrants a yes vote for this question.