With bond issue approved, District 95 can set construction timeline
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that the $77 bond issue is not resulting in a tax increase.
One week after voters overwhelmingly approved a $77.6 million bond issue, Lake Zurich Area Unit District 95 is beginning its construction plan with an eye to start work on some projects during the summer of 2019.
The referendum money will help pay for a new May Whitney Elementary School, air conditioning in five schools and 21st-century learning facilities in several buildings.
Superintendent Kaine Osburn said the first thing the school board will decide is what the priorities will be when scheduling construction projects. Osburn said district staff members will present a draft set of guidelines to the board in April.
One example guideline the board could decide on would be whether construction would be allowed during the school year when it might interrupt school operations. Osburn said most of the projects likely would be disruptive, except for the new May Whitney, which will be built elsewhere on the school grounds.
Osburn said once the guidelines are set, the board's facilities committee will take up the question of which projects should be completed first.
"We would expect them to start in summer 2019," Osburn said. "We are going to be careful and deliberate on what order we put them in."
The order matters because it determines which school has to wait the longest for new classrooms or air conditioning.
"We've made a huge commitment to community to do this right, and that's the most important thing, not to do it quickly," Osburn said.
The request proved to be popular with 4,446 voters backing the plan and 2,133 voters saying no, according to the unofficial results. Provisional ballots and late-arriving early votes haven't been counted yet.
The new bonds will replace a $65 million bond issue approved through referendum in 2000. That bond issue will be paid off next year. With the new bond issue, district officials estimate annual taxes will decrease about $14 for every $100,000 of a property's value. Had voters rejected the measure, the savings would have been about $118 for every $100,000 in property value.