What will Roselle District 12 cut if tax hike fails?

Roselle Elementary District 12 officials faced questions at a forum Thursday night about what programs could end up on the chopping block if primary voters reject a proposed property- tax increase.

About two dozen people heard the district's “Plan B” scenarios at the forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Roselle/Bloomingdale. Superintendent Melissa Kaczkowski said the district would look to cut extracurricular programs and trim busing costs if voters Tuesday oppose the district's first operating tax rate hike in more than 30 years.

The increase would cost the owner of a $250,000 market-value home about $500 more a year. The hike would raise almost $1.5 million annually and enable the district to begin to complete repairs in its two schools and shore up its finances, supporters say.

The potential busing cuts triggered concerns from some residents about extra traffic from parents driving their kids to school.

“That's going to tie those neighborhoods in knots,” said one resident.

In addition to its own students, the district also buses about nearly 30 parochial school students who live along its routes. Kaczkowski said the district would still bus children with disabilities and other “special population” students.

Regardless of Tuesday's outcome, the district will only offer a half-day kindergarten program next school year to help plug a budget deficit initially projected at $844,000.

If voters approve the tax hike, the district would begin planning to bring back full-day kindergarten, but Kaczkowski noted it “takes a year to see a new dollar” in extra revenue.

“If successful on Tuesday, that gives us a year to plan a quality, full-day experience,” Kaczkowski said. “I'm not saying our previous full day was not, but instruction has changed, and we would like to revisit what a full-day looks like.”

Several of those at the forum also raised concerns about the next round of teacher negotiations. Both the union and school board agreed to delay talks on a new contract for one year.

“You spend a lot of time talking about boilers and roofs and buildings, and I'm not hearing anything in the message about what we're going to do as far as salaries are concerned,” said Marty Tasch, a former Lake Park High School District 108 school board member, adding that he “firmly” supports the referendum.

Kaczkowski acknowledged teacher salaries are the “elephant in the room,” but said the district can't fix its financial woes “on the back of teachers.”

“We have a generous salary schedule,” she said. “Anybody who looks at it will see that, but it didn't change overnight.”

The starting annual salary for a teacher with a bachelor's degree and no prior experience is $43,712.

At the top of the pay scale, a teacher with a master's degree, 34 years in the district and 45 hours of coursework receives $108,759.

Last month, the district accepted an offer by the union to implement a one-year freeze on cost-of-living pay increases for teachers.

Union leaders said the offer was made to build support for the tax hike.

Under the current contract, teachers got a 2.5 percent cost-of-living pay raise in the first year and a 2 percent raise in each of the final two years.

The district still will provide so-called step and lane increases tied to the number of years teachers work in the district and their completion of course work. The average step increase is about 2 percent, union leaders say.

“Clearly when the next negotiation comes around, salary schedules will be something that we're keenly aware of,” school board President Rob Bisceglie said. “Now that we have all kinds of information about how our salary schedule looks compared to others, it will be a topic that we take and make wise and prudent decisions about.”