Voters, in unofficial election results, appeared to approve a $15 million bond referendum for renovating and expanding Gower School District 62’s two schools.
With all 15 precincts reporting, 58.8 percent of voters were supporting the proposition.
District officials asked residents to allow them to issue $14,950,000 in bonds to expand Gower West Elementary School and make improvements at both Gower West and Gower Middle Schools.
Miraflor Metropoulos and her husband Soterios, who live in Willowbrook, said they both voted for the referendum, although their children are grown and parents themselves..
“It’s for the community,” Soterios Metropoulos said. “It’s good for everybody.”
And it’s good for property values, said Miraflor, a retired teacher who taught in Oak Park.
The referendum would pay for a new 1,300-square-foot STEM (for science, technology, engineering and math) lab.
Gower West’s gymnasium is not large enough for all the children who should use it. With the bond proceeds, a new gymnasium would be built, along with a new art room, STEM lab, music room and stage, and a conference room in an addition at the south end of the school.
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The bond payments will be structured, so the annual principal and interest payments would be equal to what taxpayers are paying on $9 million worth of bonds issued in 2012. Those bonds were for 10 years and will expire in 2022. If the referendum passes, the district is planning to issue 20 year bonds.
If the referendum fails, property owners would see an estimated reduction of $49 per $100,000 of their property’ fair market value, once the 2012 bonds are fully paid off.
Cynthia Paintsil of Burr Ridge , whose children attended Gower, recalls previous large capital projects at both Gower West and Middle schools, and with those in mind voted “no” on the referendum. “That’s enough of taxpayer’s money,” Paintsil said.