Questions must be asked in Dist. 204

Questions must be asked in Dist. 204

Indian Prairie School District 204 seems to have plenty of money to print and mail multicolor propaganda pieces to our homes but we wonder why it is those pieces never include any follow-up to the district’s claims that enrollment was going to skyrocket and required the borrowing of $125 million (later ballooning to $150 million) to build a third high school?

Since District 204 is not forthcoming with enrollment information, we present the actual numbers, not spin, taken directly from documents recently prepared by District 204 as required by state law.

2009 enrollment — 29,735.

2010 enrollment — 29,468.

2011 enrollment — 29,216.

2012 enrollment — 28,947.

Yes, you read that correctly, just a few months after we graduated our first class from the third high school, a review shows that total enrollment has actually declined, not increased, by 788 students over the past three years.

Looking even further back, we see that elementary school enrollment has now declined for seven years in a row.

So, now what?

Aren’t the taxpayers entitled to some review and follow-up on this? It costs some $3.5 million to operate the third high school each year.

Shouldn’t the board members, who take an oath to be fiscally responsible, be asking hard questions of the administration as to how they got this so terribly wrong and what needs to be done next?

Don’t we teach students to learn from their mistakes?

Paul White

Naperville