Supporters of school expansion in Woodstock School District 200 went to the polls Tuesday hoping that seven would be their lucky number.
It was the district’s seventh attempt in six years to raise more funds for additional classrooms and to hire new teachers and its second attempt using the same two referendum questions.
Early returns show voters almost evenly split on both measures.
Meanwhile, early indications showed that Crystal Lake voters were approving two referendum proposals that would expand the City Council and encourage annexing more businesses.
Harvard voters were deciding on two referendum issues, which would raise taxes to pay for more firefighters and parks.
Woodstock’s referendums were probably the most closely watched of those up for consideration in McHenry County Tuesday.
“Without the support of the voters, our students will suffer,” Supt. Joseph Hentges said Tuesday night as he watched the returns come in. “For that reason, I hope the voters will help the kids.”
The two tax proposals were designed to raise about $22 million to alleviate overcrowding by hiring more teachers and building more classrooms. They were both narrowly defeated in March.
One referendum proposal sought to increase the educational fund tax rate by 43 cents per $100 assessed valuation to help provide staff and supplies for additions at Greenwood and Westwood Elementary Schools and an addition at Northwood Middle School, and a new elementary school slated for construction this year. It lost by 343 votes in March.
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The other referendum proposal sought to issue nearly $19.9 million in construction bonds to build an addition at Woodstock High School and make repairs to the current building. It lost by only 58 votes in March.
If both measures passed Tuesday, a Woodstock home with an assessed value of $125,000 would see a tax increase of up to $256, bringing the total property tax for schools on that same home to $1,812, district officials estimated.
District 200 officials made a concerted push in recent weeks to win enough new support to turn the tide and announced drastic cutbacks in advance if the measures did not pass. The district would be the second ever in Illinois history to cut its athletic and after-school programs, and it would have raised registration fees and left a newly built elementary school empty.
Woodstock’s City Council also unanimously endorsed both proposal, and students at Woodstock High School gave out blue-and-white ribbons and even held a news conference to drum up support.
Even so, district officials were not sure of victory going into Tuesday. They spent Monday quietly and a citizens group called supporters to remind them to vote, but no major rallying was planned for Tuesday.
“Our informal information is hopeful but we don’t feel truly confident,” said Barb Banker, community services director for the district. “There’s a big unknown out there and that’s the presidential election. A lot of people vote in a presidential election that don’t vote in any other.”
In Crystal Lake, voters were being asked to expand the City Council from five members to seven. A successful measure would also change Crystal Lake’s current method of electing all members from the city at-large to a partial ward system.
Crystal Lake Mayor Robert Wagner and other supporters had argued that the proposal would allow council business to run more efficiently by allowing council members to discuss matters outside of scheduled meetings, and would ensure that council members represent specific neighborhood interests better.
“The town has outgrown the effectiveness of the current government,” said Dean Whitfield, a Crystal Lake resident and organizer behind the referendum proposal.
Voters also were asked whether they approved an effort to annex nearby car dealerships and bring new sales tax revenues into the city, which the council rejected by one vote in May. The measure was non-binding, but Wagner hoped that, if passed, it would persuade one of the two opposing City Council members to change his mind the next time the issue comes to a vote.
Harvard-area voters got to decide on two referendum proposals, one which would raise their taxes to 39.9 cents from 23 cents per $100 assessed valuation to pay for more on-call firefighters, and another that would create a park district and give it more taxation powers to develop parks.
Fire District trustees said the tax increase would raise $200,000 which would go to put three more people on duty at the fire station and to upgrade equipment. If the measure was rejected, they warned, they would start charging a fee for ambulance calls, despite fears that it would discourage elderly people on fixed incomes from making requests.
Harvard’s proposed park district would also raise taxes if formed to collect $295,560 from an area roughly the same as Unit School District 50. A similar measure was narrowly rejected in 1990, but that was when the city had much less parkland to develop.
Marengo-area voters were being asked to pass a measure to levy an additional 3 cents per $100 assessed valuation to maintain a $1.5 million pool. Voters passed the measure to build the pool last year, but not the measure to fund it.
In a field of referendum proposals which had appeared before voters in one way or another before, one proposed ballot measure was noticeable for its absence Tuesday.
Wonder Lake resident Bob Anderson tried to get a referendum abolishing McHenry Township onto Tuesday’s ballot, but officials from that same township struck it off in August when some of Anderson’s petition signatures were challenged.