Critic unhappy with answer on District 304 enrollment discrepancy

The man who questioned enrollment projections the Geneva school district cited for its April 2007 building referendum is not satisfied with the answer he got from the school board this week.

Bob McQuillan, a founder of the Geneva TaxFACTS advocacy group, said he was disappointed school board President Mark Grosso, who looked into the matter, didn’t call for an independent investigation.

Earlier this month McQuillan asked why higher projected enrollments were published in “fact sheets” given to the public before the April 2007 vote, compared to enrollment projections the district had received less than a year earlier. The 2007 handout said the district was expecting to have 7,276 students by 2011; the 2006 report by an enrollment consultant projected the district would have 5,575 to 6,670 students at that time. The fall 2011 enrollment was 5,839.

McQuillan said he asked the question after hearing an administrator at the April 7 board retreat say that the district always used the consultant’s midrange estimate in its planning, not the high or the low.

In the 2007 referendum, voters agreed to borrow $79 million to build two new elementary schools and renovate other schools. One of the schools would replace Coultrap Elementary, which the district anticipated tearing down to make room for an expansion of Geneva High School. Coultrap has been empty almost three years, and the high school expansion was shelved.

Grosso said he spoke to current and former school board members, and learned the figures in the 2007 handout were based on the consultant’s report, plus information from the Kane County Regional Office of Education and several local real estate developers. Grosso was not on the board in 2007. Several of the then-administrators were not available for comment because they have left the district.

“I do not believe it was a good use of the district’s time and money” to pursue the question further, Grosso said.

“ ... There’s nothing we can do about it right now. We can’t tear the buildings down.”

McQuillan also criticized the board for not allowing audience members to speak after Grosso gave his answer Monday night. There were two spots on the agenda for public comment on board actions, but Grosso did not give his report until after both those opportunities had passed. He refused McQuillan’s request to allow public comment, and none of the other board members moved for such. McQuillan said he believes the timing of Grosso’s report was “orchestrated.”

Grosso said Tuesday he has seen a lot of debate about the enrollment question on Internet news forums. And the board is having a public forum Saturday, where “everyone has their opportunity to speak their minds.”