The Norridge School District 80 Board has one last shot to get voter support for a tax increase before a deficit-reduction plan would kick in for the next school year. If needed, officials say the plan would save the district $750,000 by cutting a spate of academic and after-school programs.
During the Nov. 15 school board meeting — the first meeting since Norridge voters overwhelmingly struck down a $60.6 million tax increase referendum on Nov. 8 — board members grappled with organizational issues related to the district’s new quest to address the two-month timeline it has to come up with a new tax increase proposal in an effort to win over enough voters in the next election in April.
The school board has until the Cook County Clerk’s Jan. 17 deadline to submit a new ballot question. The board’s next steps as approved at the Nov. 15 meeting call for a deficit planning committee comprised of local leaders to be set up. The committee will make a final recommendation to the school board for a new ballot question in early January, Superintendent Paul O’Malley said, and a special meeting to vote on the final referendum for April is scheduled for Jan. 16.
The referendum sought to tear down both Giles and Leigh schools and build a combined school in its place. Among the 4,733 votes cast in Leyden and Norwood Park townships on Nov. 8, 77 percent voted against the referendum, and nearly 23 percent voted for it, according to unofficial election results from the Cook County Clerk.
“The results speak very loud — the product we were trying to sell wasn’t a good product, so not many people bought it,” board member Christian Giacalone said. “A major issue now is to understand why they voted no and to reignite the trust between the board and the community, because at the end of the day, if we don’t have (the public’s) support, we don’t have anything.”
Faced with a pair of deteriorating buildings in need of millions of dollars in repairs, school district leaders now must decide how to alter the district’s original plan to build a new combined school and raise enough money to save the academic programs at risk of being cut. If the new ballot question fails, a board-approved budget deficit reduction plan would kick in for 2017-2018 and trigger $750,000 in cuts that target full-day kindergarten, band, music, art, sports and other programs. That money would be shifted to fund critical infrastructure needs that exist in both Giles and Leigh schools.
An additional $800,000 in cuts is standing by for 2018-19, when new reductions could affect special education, support staff, nurses, custodians and would cut the teaching staff in half, according to estimates from the school district.
Referendum supporters claim the health of the school district should fall on taxpayers’ shoulders. Opponents say the increase is too costly.
Among the group of at least 100 parents, teachers and taxpayers who packed into the basement of Leigh School on Nov. 15 for the board meeting, Gus Rapatas said the board was trying to “sell air” to the community.
“We had no building structure to look at, and we were asked for $60 million,” Rapatas said. “Of course the vote didn’t pass because there’s absolutely no trust with the board, because the board is not transparent. It’s about a political agenda, and it has nothing to do with the kids.”
There were few details announced about a new combined school proposed under the increase, and officials stayed mum about the specific location of where the school would go.
District 80’s administration and school board were criticized by the public over the summer during a series of town hall meetings in which residents questioned whether district leaders were forthcoming about the declining financial health of the district, which was added to the state’s financial watch list in 2010.
Among the questions surrounding the $1.8 million deficit the district faces within the next two years without new tax dollars is why the board approved a collective bargaining agreement with the Norridge Education Association for Teachers in 2014. The terms of the union’s contract provide annual bumps in teacher salaries through the 2018-19 school year.
The teachers’ contract wasn’t favored by the entire board, according to board member Jennifer Paoletti, who said she voted against the salary increases.
“You could see clear as day that we were going to run out of money before this contract ended, and that’s exactly where we find ourselves right now,” she said. “We need to do everything we can to preserve the programs we hold dear.”
District leaders engaged the public in the process leading up to the referendum with a survey that was mailed in June to all registered voters in the district. Of the 572 responses that came back, 58 percent said they didn’t support any of the three options the district laid out for addressing age-related infrastructure issues and budget shortfalls affecting academic programs at the two schools.
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The board, consulting with a deficit planning committee, decided to override the popular choice of the public and go out for the ballot option to tear down Giles and Leigh schools and build a new combined school.
The public will have a more limited role this time around when the board comes up with a new ballot question, however. As a cost-saving measure, the board elected Tuesday night to forgo a public mail survey that O’Malley said would cost upwards of $3,000 for postage and printing costs.
Board members considered the alternative of consulting a free online survey distribution service to gather public opinion on what the district should do next, but later decided against it after O’Malley said it would be unfair to the many seniors who don’t use the internet.
After leading a four-month push to get support behind the measure to raise taxes to lift the school district out of debt, the failure of the referendum prompted O’Malley to concede that taxpayers saw the proposal as unaffordable.
“Citizens reserve the right to voice their opinion in the form of a vote,” he said. “Everyone has a right to determine what their family believes in, so let’s be mindful of everyone’s economic situation.”
Norridge Mayor James Chmura said District 80 leaders should rethink the tight timeframe before the next election and consider waiting until next year.
“If you rush things, sometimes they’re not done right,” Chmura said. “The board has to start listening to the people. We come up with ideas and they keep doing what they want, and I can’t support something my residents say they can’t afford.”
District 80’s failed proposal would have raised taxes by $479 per year based on the value of a $100,000 home. The median home value in Norridge was estimated by the most recent U.S. Census data at $246,600.
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.