With challenge dropped, District 59 will need voter OK to sell bonds
Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 will need voter approval if it wants to sell up to $20 million in taxpayer-funded bonds after a challenge to a referendum effort was spiked Thursday.
The Cook County clerk's office determined Wednesday that opponents of the bond issue had enough signatures to put the question on the March ballot, prompting Esther Carrera, an Elk Grove Township Democrat party leader, to withdraw objections to petitions. Her challenge was intended to strike enough signatures to disqualify the referendum effort.
However, the clerk's office determined the group had 450 signatures more than the required 3,347, or 10 percent of voters.
The withdrawal means the district will need permission from voters to borrow the money, unless school board members decide to halt the bond issue.
School board members had preliminarily agreed to issue $15 million in bonds, though the amount could have been up to $20 million when the decision was finalized.
A $15 million bond issue would cost the average resident with a $250,000 home about $15 more in property taxes annually until 2024.
The district wants the bonds to help pay for construction projects, including a $16 million administration building, and stabilize the budget as significant deficit spending is projected for the next five years. Without the bonds, the district would deficit spend about $33 million this year, dipping deep into its $110 million reserve fund.
Over the past several years, the district has bolstered its early education and classroom instruction programs by adding dozens of employees, largely contributing to the deficit spending. This year's budget includes 19 new positions at a cost of about $1 million.
If the district doesn't sell bonds, officials will have to make budget cuts sooner to stay in compliance with a self-imposed policy requiring at least 60 percent of annual operating costs be held in reserve. The district has pledged to stop deficit spending by the budget year beginning in September 2020.
School board member Tim Burns proposed halting the bond issue during a meeting Monday, but the measure failed to gain any support.
The district includes parts of Elk Grove Village, Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect and Des Plaines, could be headed toward a referendum.