News Releases
District 15 Board of Education Approves Resolution to Place Tax Rate Referendum on November 2004 Ballot
The Board of Education of Community Consolidated School District 15 unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Superintendent Robert A. McKanna to take the necessary legal steps to place a tax rate increase question for the district’s Educational Fund on the ballot for the November 2004 general election.
The referendum is necessary, the resolution stated, “in light of the future financial position of the school district.” That future, the resolution pointed out, will include “changing student demographics, difficult budget decisions, and increasing expectations for well-educated students from the constituents in the seven communities (District 15) serves.”
A decision on the amount of tax increase voters will be asked to
approve will be based on the recommendations of the superintendent
and district staff. The board’s conclusion that a referendum is
necessary came only after a comprehensive review of the district’s
financial situation by a volunteer financial task force, a group
of community leaders who met several times over the past several
months to consider the district’s immediate and future fiscal needs.
Among the factors that have negatively impacted the district’s financial position over the past several years are large amounts of tax dollars lost to successful taxpayer appeals to the Property Tax Appeals Board and circuit court, significantly reduced state and federal funding, and continually rising expenditures, largely in the area of personnel costs.
The district has cut a total of $13 million from the budget over the last three years. The reductions were accomplished without any reduction in student programs and services, largely through staff reduction as a result of attrition. Despite continued budget reductions, District 15 is in a position of deficit spending which is depleting its reserves. The district will have to use its reserve funds to provide the same level of programs and services that have been provided in the past. If this level of usage continues, district reserves will be exhausted at the of the 2005 school year.
“We are hopeful that once the residents of our communities understand what is at stake, they will support the necessity for a referendum, thus maintaining the current level of quality programs,” said Superintendent of Schools Robert A. McKanna, Ed.D. “We will soon begin a series of informational meetings to explain the details of why we are asking for this tax rate increase. We hope all voters will use these opportunities to become well informed about how the district uses tax dollars judiciously to provide the highest possible quality of education for our 13,000 students and why we need an adjustment in the tax rate.”
District 15 has not sought a tax rate increase since a referendum in 1988.
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