St. Charles schools boss talks tax hike

The next two months in St. Charles Unit District 303 will be a time of big decisions and all the emotional vitriol that inevitably comes when the toll of higher taxes is pitted against what school officials say the children deserve.

The yearlong Summit 303 process has not occurred without criticism. That includes the final summit meeting where the consensus of about 500 attendees of the meeting showed residents might be willing to support a tax increase to fund the renovation or rebuilding of all 17 schools in the district. Such an undertaking would cost the owner of a $300,000 home about $312 more to the school based on current home assessments.

There are two major pieces left. First, the school board will review the results of a scientific telephone poll of 500 registered voters in the district as another measure of what the community wants. Second, the school board must make a decision about whether or not to put a tax increase question on the ballot by Feb. 2.

This week, Superintendent Don Schlomann and District Spokesman Jim Blaney talked about the process.

Q. What happens if the survey has the exact opposite result of the final summit meeting, and registered voters say they can't manage a tax increase right now?

Schlomann: That possibility certainly exists. That's when the board has to make their money, so to speak. The easy part is when they're the same. The hard part is when they're the opposite of each other. Then you've got to put some thought into it. You don't know what's going to happen. The people that showed up at this last summit, 33 percent of them were there for their first summit meeting. That's pretty cool in some respects to have that. That, hopefully, gave us a better flavor for what people are thinking. At the same time, it's almost two months later before the survey goes out, and things change in people's lives. We hope that people actually do think about it and reflect on is this the right time and the right place and answer truthfully on the survey. Then it's another two or three months and things could get a lot better by April. You've got a new president coming in, finance advisers, historically those tend to be positive experiences for the country. Who knows what's going to happen? If the board decides to go to referendum, that's gathering information from the community. You like it, or you don't like it. You don't know what the community is really thinking until you go to referendum.

Q. After the last summit meeting there were criticisms that the results were not valid because nonresidents dishonestly voted as residents and high school students were allowed to vote.

Schlomann: I've gotten e-mails about it including the "vote no on the referendum, vote yes on dumping Schlomann." People get very personal about it. I paid attention the students voting. Many of them voted just for the high school construction only. Very few students voted for all the construction, which makes sense because they're high school students. Certainly they weren't a unanimous group of 50 kids. I had woman at the meeting who came up yelling at me, 'You're letting the students vote!' I told her, well, they've been here ma'am, you haven't. They've been working on this stuff. And my hope is that these buildings are going to last for the next 20 years, and they're going to have to help pay for it. So, I don't know what to do. People have given us grief for it. OK, I'm wrong; you're right. Vote no. You still have the opportunity to cast your ballot.

Q. People critical of the potential for a tax increase also say there would've been a lot more people at the summit voting against the referendum, but they simply didn't know about the meeting.

Schlomann: You always have this. They are the disenfranchised. The question is, are they the majority disenfranchised or the minority disenfranchised. Hopefully the survey will provide us some insight into that, but ultimately you don't know until you pull the lever. I think a lot of those people are focused on the Wild Rose issue and the saving of the trees there. At that building meeting, it was like the Civil War. I had people on one side surrounding the building that were about saving the trees. And then there were people on the other side who said forget the trees, we want a new facility. But they have to remember this is a communitywide thing.

Q. Given the criticism, there's an expectation that there will be an increased showing of opposition to a tax increase at the upcoming board meetings on Monday, and then again in January, if they really want to make the case that the majority of taxpayers in the district oppose this push.

Blaney: That's the other part of the equation. You still have plenty of chances to speak up and have your voice heard. There's public comment at every meeting. All you have to do it go.