Dist. 25 approves air-conditioning plan
In two years, "it's too hot in here" no longer will be an excuse for Arlington Heights District 25 students.
The District 25 school board approved a plan to spend $12.6 million to air condition all nine schools with a 5-2 vote Thursday.
The plan will air condition South, Thomas, Greenbrier and Olive-Mary Stitt this summer. Work on Dryden, Ivy Hill, Patton, Westgate and Windsor will take place in summer 2009.
All board members agreed air conditioning was needed. The two dissenting votes were from board members who didn't agree with the financing plan. The plan approved Thursday was to pay for the project with a combination of a loan and cash reserves. It will have the owner of a $500,000 home paying an additional $671 in taxes over several years.
Board members Diana Chrissis, Denise Glasgow, David Page, Susan Pressing and Charles Williams voted in favor of the plan. Board members Ken Nielsen and board President Dan Petro voted against the plan.
Both Petro and Nielsen wanted to use only cash reserves to pay for the project. Currently, there is about $43 million in the district's cash reserve account. Petro and Nielsen didn't agree with stretching a tax-rate increase a few more years when the board promised taxpayers the rate would drop in 2009.
In April 2005, District 25 voters approved a tax-rate increase that gave the district an additional $5.5 million a year, which was used to refinance old debt and build additions to two elementary schools.
Back then, homeowners agreed to pay 19 cents more per $100 of equalized assessed valuation through 2009, when the retirement of old debt will cause the tax rate to decrease by 21 cents per $100 of EAV. This will be a reduction in taxes of about $450 on a $500,000 home.
Without the air-conditioning project, the rate would fall another 22 cents in 2011. However, because of the air conditioning financing plan approved Thursday, taxpayers won't see that second 22-cent tax rate drop until 2014.
"During the referendum, we never said we wanted $12 million for an air-conditioning project," Petro said. "We gave taxpayers our word."
Chrissis disagreed. She said the tax increase was for "infrastructure improvements," which could include the air-conditioning project.
"The referendum was for an investment of infrastructure," she said. "Air conditioning falls under that category."
To fund the air-conditioning project, the District 25 school board had three funding options -- cash reserves, a loan or the combo option, which the administration backed.
The loan option would have cost the owner of $500,000 home an additional $150 a year in taxes through 2015. The combination option has that homeowner paying an additional $100 a year though 2013. The cash-only option would've cost taxpayers nothing.
Board member David Page said using only cash reserves would have left the board with little money for the next eight or 10 years.
"We don't know what's going to happen down the road," Page said.
The school board has been talking about the air-conditioning issue since May. This fall, the school board hosted two public hearings on the issue. At each one about 20 teachers, students and parents spoke in favor of air conditioning. Not a single person spoke against the idea.