District 214 to send mailers ahead of referendum, but won’t be ‘urging a yes vote,’ officials say
Northwest Suburban High School District 214 plans to flood mailboxes with thousands of glossy mailers in the lead-up to its first referendum in more than a half-century.
Officials at the Arlington Heights-based school district said the three mail pieces, which will go out between early September and late October ahead of Election Day Nov. 3, will contain information about proposed school building renovations, what they cost, and how residents can learn more and vote.
“Any information is run by legal before it goes out publicly — our social media posts, written communications, the website content that’s just about finalized. That is also gated and run through our legal team to ensure compliance,” Pat Mogge, the district’s director of community engagement and outreach, told school board members Thursday night before they voted to approve $27,000 worth of printing bids.
Added district spokeswoman Lindsey Dombrowski on Friday: “Under state law, government organizations such as school districts may use public funds to inform voters about the referendum but may not advocate for its passage. … You will not see the school district urging a yes vote in any of these materials.”
Approval of the mail pieces comes a month after Americans for Prosperity — Illinois lodged an ethics complaint that questioned whether District 214’s taxpayer-funded referendum activity crossed from factual information into prohibited polling, voter surveying, campaign strategy or referendum advocacy.
Superintendent Scott Rowe defended earlier online and in-person surveys as “transparent fact finding” in the lead-up to a potential referendum. He said the district hasn’t used public resources to urge “anyone to vote for or against anything.”
The district solicited the printing bids before the board’s official vote Aug. 6 to place a question on the ballot that will ask voters to authorize $295 million in new bonding authority for facility upgrades. The sealed bids were opened Aug. 12.
Two vendors were awarded: Cary-based Plum Grove Printing and Pennsylvania-based Indiana Printing and Publishing.
Three full-color mailers are planned, each sent to some 106,000 addresses in the district: the first, a 6-by-11-inch double-sided postcard about anticipated community information sessions and building tours; the second, a four-page brochure about what the projects entail; and the third, a postcard with links to the district website for voting information.
Dates, times and locations for the in-person information sessions and building tours are now being finalized, Dombrowski said.
cplacek@dailyherald.com