West Aurora volunteers are making a final push to get residents to the polls on April 7, when voters will determine if the school district can borrow up to $84.2 million.
West Aurora volunteers will be knocking on doors and making calls this week in a final push to get residents to the polls on April 7, when voters will determine if the school district can borrow up to $84.2 million to finance school building projects.
The citizens group West Aurora Volunteers for Education, or WAVE, has campaigned in support of the referendum over the last two months and set up a website at http://www.wave129.org where voters can get more information.
Major proposed projects include rebuilding Hill Elementary School for $18 million, constructing a new $14.1 million early childhood and district administrative center, installing new heating and cooling systems in 11 schools for $23.8 million and building $10 million worth of additions at five schools.
“We all feel pretty confident the facts are out there and that people are showing more support,” said Ingrid Roney, a WAVE volunteer who has three children in the district.
If the referendum passes, the additions and new heating and cooling systems would be ready for the 2016-17 school year, while the new Hill would open for the 2017-18 school year. West Aurora Superintendent Jeffrey Craig said the district would wait until the state reimburses districts for serving preschoolers before building a new early childhood center.
The district is scheduled to pay off its current debt load of $94.1 million — about half of which is leftover from a 2002 bond referendum — by 2027.
More Top Picks Roborock Q10 S5 Plus
The $84.2 million in new borrowing would extend the life of that loan, making it so that the district wouldn’t pay off its total debt until 2038, or 2037 if the district receives a loan with some interest subsidized by the federal government.
WAVE volunteers have focused their campaign efforts in areas with traditionally high voter turnout. They’ve also tried to get teachers who live in the district to support the referendum.
Craig and district officials have been busy in recent months, too, attending nearly two dozen community meetings and public forums to explain how the district would spend the money.
“There was some really compelling factors that said ‘this is the time,'” Craig said at Washington Middle School on Thursday, the district’s last public forum.
Passing a referendum now would allow the district to take advantage of historically low interest rates, Craig said, and lock in labor and construction rates that tend to trend upward each year.
Angela Smith, the district’s assistant superintendent of operations, said the building projects would allow West Aurora to stop renting mobile classrooms at six schools and lower utility costs.
With Election Day around the corner, volunteers face some hurdles. Some voters are put off by the $84.2 million price tag, while others don’t like the idea of extending the district’s debt repayment plan. Some have questioned whether the district’s list truly represents critical needs, or if there is any “fluff” that could be cut.
Don Pilmer, the co-chair of WAVE, said part of the challenge is overcoming the public’s perception of the word “referendum.”
“That’s a negative word that people automatically associate with increased taxes,” said Pilmer, who has one child in the district and another who graduated from West Aurora last year.
West Aurora officials have said if the referendum passes they would structure the district’s debt so that annual payments don’t exceed the $14 million level they’re at now. That would hold steady the amount of property taxes the district collects each year to pay off its debt.
But the school district also collects property taxes to pay for operations, which cover everything from teacher salaries to textbooks to school buses. District officials have predicted this referendum won’t lead to operating cost increases, but said the operating side of the district’s tax bill could go up with inflation and as new property is added to the tax rolls.
“We’re not making the statement that your tax bill won’t go up, because I don’t know that I could make that promise,” Craig said.
Helping the public understand how school environment can affect teaching and learning also has been important to the campaign, parent volunteers said.
Bob Lundquist, a West Aurora High School science teacher with two children in the district, said building more space for preschoolers meant more children would arrive prepared for kindergarten. It’s an important shift, he said, as research has shown the importance of early childhood education, especially for low-income students. About six in 10 West Aurora students are considered low-income, state data shows.
More control over school building temperature would mean fewer distractions in summer months — and no dismissals on hot days — Lundquist said, and the additions would allow older school buildings to better incorporate educational technology. The high school construction would allow for more career technical education to be offered in house, Lundquist added, and free up space for the new Air Force JROTC program.
“People think a school is a school,” Pilmer said. “There is a mass amount of difference between the district’s newest school and oldest school.”
Some voters have questioned why Hill Elementary is the only school slated to be rebuilt, parent volunteers said. Some may vote against the referendum this year, volunteers said, in hopes of getting their “pet project” added to the list in the future.
Lundquist said he believed the district had done a good job narrowing its list of projects and doubted any future attempts at a referendum would include more.
“I think it’s a little bit for everybody,” said Susie Runge, a WAVE volunteer with two children in the district, “with what they can afford to spend.”