Referendum - Myth of the Week

August 6, 2007

They’re going to just knock down Central Campus.

Response:  Central Campus is a historical gem of our community.  Anyone who has walked the halls cannot deny the beauty of the moldings in the foyer by the gym and the uniqueness of the marble in the Smith foyer.  We have tried to find a way to keep this beautiful building as a part of our future planning.  Unfortunately, Central Campus can no longer be used as a student attendance center for the following reasons:

 

Although Central Campus will no longer be used as an attendance center, District 205 will be mindful of the following:

 

District 205 cannot enter into negotiations with developers until they are certain that we will no longer be using the building.  Therefore, once the referendum passes and before the new classrooms are built, the District will develop a plan that honors the values of our residents.

August 13, 2007

Let Homer build its own school!

Response:   A young village like Homer Glen has many challenges that it must face as it grows into a historic municipality like Crest Hill or Lockport.  There are many, many costs associated with incorporation and it is very difficult for a village like this to keep its head above water.  Fortunately, Homer Glen has had some wonderful leadership in its beginning years and it is growing in strength every day.

It would be very difficult for a community like Homer Glen to build classrooms and staff them without financially crippling its residents with even higher taxes.  Homer Glen currently does not have its own police department or park district, so building and staffing a new high school is probably not in its financial best interests.  Building its own classrooms would also probably require the splitting of elementary school districts and the division of commercial land to support the new building.

This process would take a long time to implement and the need for new classrooms is NOW.  It is much more productive for us to remain united and to celebrate that our strength comes from the union of all the communities within our school district.

August 20, 2007

Why don’t you try and do what Lincoln-Way High School did and build some schools without coming to the taxpayers?

Response:  The fact of the matter is that we are doing exactly what Lincoln-Way High School did to provide classrooms for their students.  Lincoln-Way is currently building two high schools to accommodate their explosive growth and they did not increase their tax rate to do it. 

Nonetheless, Lincoln-Way was required to ask taxpayers for permission to sell bonds to pay for the construction and LTHS is doing the same.  The good news is that, just like Lincoln-Way, the classroom construction plan for District 205 DOES NOT REQUIRE A TAX RATE INCREASE!  Part of the reason for this is the rising property values and commercial development in our District.

August 27, 2007

Just build onto East Campus over that golf course and let the students share the library, football field and cafeteria.

Response:  The small, three-hole golf course on the south side of the East Campus was donated by a philanthropist who is striving to bring the game of golf to poor students and residents who cannot afford to pay greens fees at local golf courses.  It is meant to be an introduction to golf to help give these disadvantaged students an opportunity to experience all of the benefits of the game of golf.

Just as it would be inappropriate and inconsiderate to destroy a physical object, like a statue, that was donated to the school, so too we must respect the wishes of this generous benefactor.  This golf course was built without a single cent from our taxpayers.

Building more classrooms on the property at East Campus and allowing students to share the cafeteria, library and other common areas does not solve our overcrowding either.  These rooms are already maxed out with students, so adding even more would just compound the problem.

September 4, 2007

Just build the school the old fashioned way-one large, three story building with no frills like a wellness Center or auditorium.

Response:  The current plan for the Cedar Road classrooms is just that:  a three-story building with a gym (field house) on one side and an auditorium on the other.  LTHS is committed to providing our students with a building that will allow them to be competitive with other students in surrounding districts.  Eliminating features like the auditorium or swimming pool are detrimental to our curriculum and will put our students at a disadvantage to others in the area.

September 10

Hallways and classrooms were crowded when I was in school.  Students should just deal with it like I did.

Response:  The state average for classroom size is 18.9 students and LTHS class sizes are almost five students higher than that (23.5) and growing.  By comparison, these are the classroom sizes for the schools in our area:

Lemont High School:                                18.2 students
Plainfield North High School:                 21.2 students
Plainfield Central High School:              19.4 students
Andrew High School:                               20.5 students
Sandburg High School:                            19.3 students
Stagg High School:                                   19.7 students
Lincoln-Way East High School:              22.3 students
Lincoln-Way Central High School:        22.4 students

Keep in mind that Lincoln-Way’s taxpayers approved two new schools for their district, so their classroom sizes will decrease substantially as soon as their buildings open.

In today’s competitive educational environment, it is difficult for our teachers to give the quality attention to all the students as classroom sizes continue to grow.  Studies have shown that smaller class sizes are much more conducive to educational achievement.  Building more classrooms will give our students all the opportunities that students have in our surrounding districts.

September 17, 2007

Let them go to split shifts.  I did it when I was in school and I turned out OK.

Response:  LTHS will do whatever we can to postpone the implementation of ‘split shifts’ because we do not believe that they are conducive to a healthy learning environment.  For those who may not know, ‘split shifts’ means that half of our students (probably Juniors and Seniors) would attend classes from about 6:00 a.m. until about noon. The other half of the student body (probably Freshmen and Sophomores) would attend class from about noon until 6:00 p.m.

We recognize that such a plan would be devastating to many families and to the co-curricular programs that so many students and their families treasure. We understand that split shifts might have to become an unfortunate reality, but we will continue to work with the ideas proposed by the Internal Growth Committee (see the October 29, 2007 Rumor below) to delay their implementation.

September 24, 2007

Developers should be paying for these classrooms.  They’re the ones bringing in all the kids.

Response:  The County of Will, City of Lockport and Village of Homer Glen instituted developer fees to help mitigate the cost impact of growth on the district. Unfortunately, LTHS has no control over the amount that municipalities charge developers for impact fees.  LTHS is proud of our close partnerships with the communities that we proudly serve and we have been working collaboratively with local and county leaders to negotiate impact fees.  Developers are required to contribute either money (in the form of site contribution fees) or land to help offset each new house that it builds in our district.

Impact monies received are tracked separately from the District’s general funds and are limited to the purchase of land, construction of buildings, and capital improvements to our facilities.  District 205 has received approximately $2 million in impact fees in recent years and these funds paid for the construction of our expanded transportation facility and the land for the new school.

It is important to note that, while impact fees do provide some important taxpayer relief, these fees alone will not cover the costs of addressing our severe overcrowding by building classrooms or expanding East Campus.

October 1, 2007

The school is wrong-home sales are down and there will be fewer kids going to school.  We’re eventually going to have to close the school if we build it.

Response:  The method of enrollment projection that we used is based on the Cohort Survival Ratio.  This is an acceptable and very reliable method of projecting enrollment growth that is used by school districts nationwide.

High school districts have an advantage over elementary school districts in that each year they receive nine years of enrollment data from the elementary school districts.  (Elementary school districts often need to use live birth data from local hospitals to do their enrollment projections).  The projection that was presented to the Board of Education is the latest, developed in November 2006 after District 205 received data from the local elementary school districts.  The data comes from the Fall Housing Report that the State Board requires each district to complete.  The report is based on student counts on the last school day in September and is due to the State Board of Education on October 31 of each year.

After the local districts complete their Fall Housing Report, District 205 receives a copy and updates its enrollment projections.  This is done every year.  Remember that the growth charts are merely projections, but they are a reliable projection of growth.  Last year we were only 27 or so students short of our projection.

October 9, 2007

I live in Crest Hill and my brother lives in Lockport.  There is no way that we are building a school for Homer kids that is better than East Campus, where our kids will be going to school.

Response:  The buildings may look a little different because of the type of property they will be constructed on, but the focus is on equity for all students.  Both campuses will offer the same opportunities for academic and co-curricular excellence to all our students and architectural design will be driven by the academic programs we offer our students.

October 15, 2007

Why does this school cost so much to build?  I’ve heard of other schools that were built for far less.  And the last two referenda were for less money too.

Response:  It is important to compare apples to apples when comparing the cost of classroom construction.  Elementary schools cost far less to build than high schools because their curricula are far less strenuous.  The cost of these classrooms is driven by our academic goals and the curriculum at LTHS, not by architectural style and other factors.

The referendum in 2006 asked for permission to issue bonds in the amount of about $122 million to build classrooms on the Cedar Road property for 2,700 students and to add a gymnasium and other facilities to the East Campus that would have been lost as we converted the use of Central Campus.

The referendum in 2007 asked for permission to issue bonds in the amount of about $126 million to build classrooms on the Cedar Road property for 2,700 students and to improve East Campus, which would have also served about 2,700 students.

The referendum in 2008 will ask for permission to issue bonds in the amount of about $154 million to build classrooms on the Cedar Road property for 3,300 students and to add a gymnasium and other facilities to the East Campus that will expand its capacity to 3,000 students.

The last two referenda proposed the construction of a building that would have given the District enough classrooms to accommodate 5,400 students.  The 2008 referendum will increase this capability by 900 students and could potentially accommodate up to 7,200 students.

The overall cost is also increased by the impact of inflation on building materials and labor, as well as the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which put a strain on the steel, lumber and other industries.  This strain has translated to higher costs for all of us and has raised the price of building products substantially.

In summary, the 2008 proposal is more costly for several reasons:

 

There is also a potential savings of over $150 million to our taxpayers, because the 2008 referendum may allow the District to avoid building a third campus, since these classroom buildings will have the potential to be expanded.

October 22, 2007

What happened to all the extra money the high school gets for all these houses and businesses that are new to our district?

Response:  We have considered the new tax revenue due to EAV increases in our projection.  That is why we believe that District 205 can operate a new high school without a rate increase to our Education or Building Fund.  The new revenue that we have received has been used to increase staff.  This includes teachers, custodians, bus drivers, and other support staff personnel.  It has also been used to keep up with other demands such as insurance increases, employee salaries, and equipment such as technology improvements and an expanding school bus fleet.  As our enrollment grows, our staff will also grow and our tax revenue will be enough to pay for that growth.

Please remember that we cannot build classrooms with the increases in tax revenue due to new growth.  Expenditures from each fund are described by law in the School Code of Illinois.  For example, the largest portion of our tax revenue received is for the Education Fund.  The School Code does not allow construction costs to be paid from the Education Fund.  The only way to build a building of this size is through a public referendum.

October 29, 2007

LTHS is using scare tactics to get us to vote for the referendum.  They haven’t done everything they can to squeeze students into the building.

Response:  For the past three years, LTHS has utilized a volunteer staff team called the Internal Growth Committee to identify temporary/short-term measures that could be instituted to address the overcrowding issues. The committee makes annual recommendations to the Board of Education for approval and adoption. They are to be commended for engaging in this very time-consuming and difficult task. Some actions that have been or will be taken include:

 

Temporary classrooms are not a viable long-term solution to our overcrowding crisis because they do not ease the traffic in our campus hallways and may create obstacles to student safety in the event of natural disasters. Our students experience great difficulty navigating their ways from class to class on a daily basis, and the only solution for this problem is the expansion of our facilities.

November 5, 2007

I am a senior citizen and cannot afford a tax increase.  My pension and social security do not increase enough for me to pay more in taxes.

Response:  Senior citizens have many tools at their disposal to ease the burden of rising taxes on their bills every year.  Here are a few that can be viewed at the Will County Treasurer’s website, http://www.willcountytreasurer.com:

 

 

IL-1017 Application for Deferral of Real Estate/Special Assessment Taxes

 IL-1018 Real Estate/Special Assessment Tax Deferral and Recovery Agreement
 

                  $22,793: yourself
                  $30,594: yourself and your spouse
                  $38,393: yourself, your spouse and additional residents.

Contact the State toll free at 1-800-624-2459 for more information.

November 12, 2007

I don’t benefit from a new high school because I don’t have children in the school system or my children have already graduated.

Response:  A healthy school district benefits everyone because it attracts responsible residential and commercial development.  Think about it:  what is one of the first things someone looks at when considering a move to a city or town (whether it be a move into a new home or a move of a business)?  They look at the schools!  One way to ensure that our home values stay high and that crime levels stay low is to support our schools.  The alternative is a depressed area with low home values and high crime and no one benefits from that environment!

November 19, 2007

Homer will just steal the school away when they get a chance, so I am not paying for it.  Romeoville did it in 1971 and I know it can happen again.

Response:  The procedure for detachment and formation of a new school district is far more complicated and takes much more time than the procedure that existed when Romeoville detached in 1971.  The Illinois State Board of Education strongly encourages school districts to consolidate, not break apart. In fact, in the mid 1980’s Illinois had more than 1100 separate school districts. Due to a major state effort to promote consolidation and provide numerous financial incentives to merge, there are now 873 districts.

There is a misperception in the community that the Lockport West Campus was “stolen” from our District in 1971, but an examination of the documents from this transaction indicate that our school district was fairly and equitably compensated for this detachment.

As has been indicated, the process today is also far more complicated and time consuming than the process that existed in 1971.  In 1971, only the seven members of the Regional Board of School Trustees had to approve a detachment petition.  Today, the Regional Office of Education holds a public hearing; after weighing the evidence (including the testimony of the public), they will either approve or deny the detachment proposal, at which point the State Superintendent of Schools will have to either approve or deny the petition.

In addition, if the State Superintendent approves the petition for detachment, it becomes a Referendum question put before the registered voters in each school district that would be affected by a proposed detachment.  The voters would have to approve or deny the proposal, and the passage requirements for said Referendum are very strict.  If a detachment proposal is approved by the voters, the matter would still be subject to review by the courts, which could delay the initiative for several years.

November 26, 2007

My taxes are too high, I can’t afford a new school.

Response:  There is no denying that many of our residents struggle to pay their property taxes every year.  There are other communities that one could move to and pay less for the same or even more property.  High taxes are an unfortunate reality when a person lives in an area like ours that has so many amenities nearby and also high quality education for our children.

Since this area is in such high demand and we see so much more traffic on our roads, the cost to the taxpayers to maintain these benefits is also very high.  One of the advantages to living in an area with so many people is that the cost of building classrooms is also spread out more sparsely.  The cost to taxpayers to build classrooms for our students will on average only be about $24 dollars each year over the next 20 years.

December 3, 2007

I can’t vote for this until I know what the boundaries are.

Response:  The boundaries for the new campuses will be determined at a later time, after the buildings have opened and we are able to assess environmental factors.

Some of the factors that will impact these discussions are traffic on and around Interstate 355, the development that is occurring throughout the district, and the enrollment and respective growth projections for each of our feeder schools.

The 2008 referendum plan includes a four year transition into two four-year schools from the date of opening.  The transition period gives District 205 the opportunity to listen to feedback from its community members to aid in its decision regarding boundaries.  Since that decision is about two years away, there will be several factors that will affect the boundary discussion.

A community engagement program will be initiated to gather feedback from our residents once all of the factors are known.  For example, residential and commercial developments will have been established and we will have a better grasp on the demographic makeup of our district at that time.   New roads and bridges will also affect the recommendations made by our residents at that time.

In the end, our district will make a decision regarding boundaries that will consider community feedback and will ensure that all students continue to receive the outstanding education that we have become accustomed to at LTHS.

December 10, 2007

The school wastes money.  They should cut teachers’ and administrators’ salaries to pay for the school.

Response:  Some may have concerns with the cost of education on a nationwide scale, but LTHS prides itself on its fiscal frugality.  According to the School Business and Support Services Division of the Illinois State Board of Education, Lockport Township High School District 205 continues to rank in the top ten least-spending high school districts in the Chicago metropolitan area. This area includes the 51 school districts within Cook and the collar counties (Lake, McHenry, DuPage, and Will). The following is LTHS’s ranking for fiscal year 2006 per-pupil spending in comparison to other high school districts in the area:

7)  LOCKPORT TWP HSD 205                    $10,151.76

47)  New Trier Twp HSD 203                     $16,856.02
48)  Evanston Twp HSD 202                     $17,031.48
49)  Northfield Twp HSD 225                    $17,315.88
50)  Niles Twp CHSD 219                           $17,422.62
51)  Twp HSD District 113                          $17,920.86

Comparing our academic achievement with the costs, we feel that LTHS is offering both a competitive educational environment for our students and great value for our taxpayers’ dollars.

If we were to dramatically slash teacher and administrator salaries, we would lose most of our staff to competing school districts in the area.  This is certainly not in the best interests of our children and other residents who have come to expect a high quality education from our school district.  And even if these salaries were cut, the revenue would not be close to paying for a new classroom building.

Source: School Business & Support Services Division, Illinois State Board of Education

December 17, 2007

They’re just going to need another referendum to operate and staff the school.

Response:  LTHS has a great track record for building classrooms without requiring additional taxpayer dollars to operate them.  In 1996, for example, we built classrooms onto East Campus and promised that no additional tax increase would be necessary after the referendum was approved.  LTHS delivered on its promise and has never asked for money to operate the classrooms.

Usually, when adding new facilities, school districts need additional operating revenue and must ask for an operating rate increase as well as permission to issue building bonds.

The LTHS Board of Education has demonstrated excellent budget management in the past, and we are fortunate that an operating tax rate increase will not be necessary.

Our financial projections indicate that, during the first two years that the classroom building is open, LTHS will use its financial reserves to operate it.  After that time, however, our analysis shows that rising tax revenue generated by new community growth will sufficiently operate District 205 without an operating tax rate increase.