Geneva school board will ask residents about priorities

The Geneva school board, whose interaction with the public has oft been criticized in recent years, is having a public forum Saturday morning to solicit opinions on several topics.

It wants to know:

Ÿ What should its financial management priorities be?

Ÿ What should its educational priorities be?

Ÿ What should its priorities be regarding facilities?

The forum is from 10 a.m. to noon in the cafeteria at Geneva Middle School North, 1357 Viking Drive.

The forum comes several days before annual property tax bills start showing up in taxpayers' mailboxes. The district expects that bills will increase several hundred dollars, as the district's loan payments are increasing. In December, its business services assistant superintendent estimated that this spring, the school tax bill on a house with a market value of $288,000 would increase about $279.

As for facilities, the district has not decided what to do with Coultrap Elementary School, which has been vacant almost three years. The district had planned to knock down part of the school to make way for an expansion of Geneva High School. It moved elementary students out of Coultrap to one of two elementary schools built with voters approval in a 2007 referendum. The plan was to have another referendum in 2009, asking voters to borrow money for the high school expansion. But plans for the expansion were put on hold in late 2008.

The district has considered moving its administrative offices into the oldest part of Coultrap, which opened in 1923. But then it would have to decide what to do with the offices' current home, the former Fourth Street Elementary School.