District 67 Board Puts Off Further Action on Consolidation

The District 67 Board of Education delayed a decision about three studies needed to move forward with a controversial proposal to sell  to an auto dealer.

At its Thursday night meeting, some board members echoed complaints about the fast-tracked nature of the proposal to consolidate all the district's students at a new facility for kindergarten through eighth grade at the start of the 2012 school year.

"This is not a decision that should be rushed," said board member Lance Foreman. "Because once you make it, there's no going back."

In other business, the board passed a fee increase, from $2,100 to $2,400 for half-days for pre-kindergarten, which Superintendent Jamie Reilly said still puts the district on the lower end of the cost spectrum for those offering pre-kindergarten. The board also increased book fees by $5 and implemented a new cap of $300 for each family for book fees.

The board has been trying to take the temperature of the community about the school consolidation proposal, which has been presented as a way to help bail the district out of financial trouble and upgrade its aging facilities.

In the public comment portion of the meeting, members heard from a handful of community members who have spoken out against the plan in previous community forums on the topic. The board also heard from a representative of the district's teachers, who overwhelmingly support the plan.

The board brainstormed how it can get the word out to people who haven't yet heard about the plan to sell Golf and consolidate the schools at Hynes, which was first floated in late January.

For senior citizens, who are less likely to access the district's website, school officials discussed printing the presentation with large typeface and making pamphlets available in the public library. For the district's non-English speaking parents, there was a discussion about translating the information.

The timeframe for making a decision is tight for a variety of reasons. The auto dealer wants to take possession of the property, which also includes , next year at the latest. To get permits and draft plans under way, an architectural firm hired by the district says it needs the go-ahead and must do three more studies.

Calling them "premature," the board voted to delay moving forward with the studies of the Hynes Elementary site: a traffic study, a soil boring study and a land survey.

The board will meet Feb. 17 with the Board to iron out any potential issues with the proposed sale of Hren Park.

District 67, which has not asked for a bond referendum increase to support the schools' building and operations budgets since the 1960s, is projecting large deficits and needs to raise nearly $1.6 million to stay solvent through 2017.

Whether the schools consolidate into one site or not, Reilly said at both community forums, the school district will have to come before the voters in 2012 to ask for more operating revenue through a referendum. If the K-8 school is not built, the district will also need to ask for $2 million to bring its two existing buildings into a state of adequacy, not improvement, according to a comprehensive facility-needs study conducted in July 2010 that addressed building repairs anticipated over the next 10 years.

With the sale of Golf Middle School, voters would be asked for a 5.7 percent increase in their property taxes; without it, the district will require a 6.6 percent increase, or $66 for each $1,000 of tax currently paid.

Two audience members, who favor keeping a two-school district, said they would be more supportive of an even larger referendum that would improve the buildings rather than just make them adequate.

Board member Samina Hussain agreed. "If you're going to go for a referendum, at least do it right," she said.