Geneva enrollment issue not going away

Geneva school board critics finally got their chance this week to tell the board what they thought of the president's investigation into why enrollment projections cited in 2007 — regarding a request to build two new schools — were higher than projections presented by a consultant just a few months before.

They still left unsatisfied, however, because the board won't investigate the matter further.

At least one called for current board members who had served in 2007 to resign over the matter.

A resident had asked about the discrepancy in early April. Board President Mark Grosso, who was not on the board in 2007, looked into it. At an April 24 school board meeting, he said he learned the numbers in the referendum handout were based on the consultant's report, plus information from the Kane County Regional Office of Education and several real estate developers.

But he did not talk to several administrators who had since left the district, including the former business superintendent, and said it was not a ”good use” of the district's time and money to pursue the question further.

Monday, resident Sandra Ellis presented Geneva TaxFACTS' own handout about the matter. She contended the referendum handout was false in that it said the enrollment consultant had verified the numbers, but the district has provided no proof of such verification, she said. And Ellis said officials from the regional office told her they don't do enrollment projections.

“Was it fraud? Where are the people responsible for inflating these numbers? If they are still here, they need to be replaced. Or was it incompetency? Did no one notice this huge discrepancy?” Ellis asked.

Another critic, Gail O'Brien, asked Grosso if he was going to respond to Ellis' presentation and questions.

“No, I think I gave my response at the last meeting,” Grosso said.

“I think that is in poor taste to us taxpayers, and disrespectful,” O'Brien said.

Grosso then said if it was such a “hot-button issue,” people would have brought it up at a community forum April 28. But O'Brien said the forum advertisements said the board wouldn't engage in discussion of matters brought up at the forum, so people didn't bother asking about the enrollment issue.

In 2007 voters approved building two new elementary schools and renovating and repairing others. The cost of repaying the money borrowed has started to increase steeply.

Enroll: Board president wouldn't respond to tax group's presentation