Schools

D. 31 Board Approves $1.8M Property Tax Referendum

Given insufficient revenues and rising expenses, school district will place referendum on March 2012 ballot.

Members of the board of are hoping the second time is a charm when it comes to raising property taxes.

At a meeting on Thursday night, the board voted unanimously to place a referendum on the March 2012 ballot seeking $1.8 million in additional property tax revenues. 

The referendum will be the district’s second attempt to raise property taxes. After , District 31 to its budget. Those cuts included some teachers and support personnel as well as extracurricular programs for students and funding for new technology. Teachers also agreed to a one-year salary freeze.

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Even with those cuts, the district’s 2011-12 budget falls approximately $1.5 million short. But superintendent Alexandra Nicholson says there’s little left to cut that won’t impact student education. And it doesn’t help that the district has the lowest tax rate among four neighboring districts (and the seventh lowest in the state). 

“Having the lowest tax rate in the area does not give us enough money to sustain our programs,” Nicholson told reporters before the board meeting Thursday. “Something has to be done on a permanent basis.” 

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Changing Demographics Tax District Resources 

District 31’s financial position is complicated by the school system’s rapidly changing demographics. Among incoming students, 49 percent qualify for English Language Learner (ELL) programs, according to Nicholson. Currently, the district has two times as many students who qualify for state-mandated ELL programs as nearby districts 27, 28 and 30 combined. Bringing those students up to speed—and hiring bilingual teachers—takes money the district doesn’t have.

“We’re working with a lot more challenges than the other districts,” Nicholson said. 

Also weighing down the budget are $1.35 million in necessary “life safety” repairs due to be completed on the aging buildings, Nicholson said. According to state law, those improvements must be made to the school’s two buildings in order to prevent conditions that could be hazardous to health, she said.

On top of rising costs, the school district is currently fighting a roughly $2.4 million  from for the tax years 2004-2006. Once that one is resolved, the district will fight a second appeal for the years 2007-2009 that could take a similarly huge chunk out of its budget. 

The appeals come after the district had to pay $2.3 million in refunds for the tax years 1992-2003 when Allstate first appealed its taxes in 2005. While the first tax refund was an unwelcome surprise, Nicholson said that administrators are including the loss of tax revenue from Allstate in their budget projections going forward, and have created a separate account within the school’s budget to save for those refunds.  

Superintendent: Referendum Would Get District On Track Through 2022

As alternatives to a referendum, the board considered borrowing bonds or making further cuts. Last year, school board members voted to take out $6 million in bonds to pay for district expenses. The board has issued $3 million of those thus far. But that money won’t be enough to plug the hole in district finances long-term, according to Nicholson—and continuing to borrow would only drive the district into debt.

Nicholson said she had researched consolidating with other districts, but said it wasn’t a magic bullet. In order to consolidate, residents of both districts would have to approve the shift by majority vote. Then, the tax rate of the district with the lower taxing rate—district 31, under any scenario with nearby school districts—would go up to the level of the other district. The district with the higher tax rate could lower its rate slightly, but Nicholson said that was unlikely to happen. 

“Taxpayers end up paying a tax rate increase anyway,” she said. 

If voters approve the referendum, the district would collect approximately $1.8 million more in property taxes next year. District 31 asking for $1.8 million but expects to net only $1.5 million, given falling property tax values, Nicholson explained.

Last year’s failed referendum would have added $2.23 million to the district’s property tax collection, but this year’s figure does not include facility improvements, including life safety repairs, according to the superintendent. 

The additional $1.8 million would get the district on track financially through 2022, Nicholson said. With spending maintained at this year’s level, the property tax increase would help the district keep its reserves at or above 35 percent of its total budget, according to board policy.

For individual homeowners in the district, the increase would raise taxes by approximately $446 per year on the average $500,000 home. Residents would see the increase on their 2011 tax bills and the school district would receive the money in the fall of 2012.

D. 31 Taxpayer: “Do You Really Think This Is A Good Time?”

Roughly a dozen people attended the meeting, including some parents, teachers and taxpayers without children in the district.

One woman, who identified herself as a resident of district 31 in Glenview but declined to give her name, questioned whether a second property tax referendum made sense on the heels of last year’s failure. 

“Do you really think this is a good time to be going for a referendum?” she said. “This last tax bill, people were hit hard.”

Members of the board said that as taxpayers themselves, they empathized with her sentiments. 

“I agree with you, it’s not a good time to ask anybody for money,” said board vice president Jeffrey Silver. But, he said he would rather be paying money directly to the school district than paying money in interest on bonds were it to go further into debt.

Furthermore, Silver said that a declining school district would adversely affect property values. He refinanced his home this year, he said, and had two appraisals done within nine months. In the first appraisal, the assessor compared his home to district 27 and district 28, rather than district 30. In the second appraisal, his home was compared to others in district 31—and the difference was an “eye-opener,” he said.

“My home is now valued at 25 percent less than it was before,” Silver said.

D. 31 Parent: “I Would Have Moved To Another District”

Ana Barion, who moved to district 31 from the city of Chicago last year, said she looked at the high schools in the area, but not the elementary schools when choosing her new community. Had she known about district 31’s situation, “I would have moved to another district,” she said. 

Recently, her 7-year-old son came home from school and told her that the water fountain in the cafeteria was no longer working at Winkelman School. 

“It’s sad to hear that from your kid,” she said. “You want your kids to be in a good school, and they’re cutting everything.” 

If the referendum fails, district 31 must prepare for another round of cuts. To prepare for that possibility, Nicholson is forming an advisory committee of staff, parents and interested community members. The group will meet in the morning on January 10, 2012; all interested participants should contact the district at 847-272-6880 in advance.

Editor's Note: This article has been edited to clarify how much money the district would expect to receive in property tax revenues and what was included in the funds District 31 asked for on last year's referendum. 


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