The voters of Palatine Township soundly defeated the District 15 $27 million bond referendum, with about 67% voting NO. However, the District’s disinformation campaign continues. The TribLocal reports that the Interim Superintendent is “unsure of how to pay for capital improvements”, and says that the District has “few options”. The Daily Herald reports that cuts are inevitable (in spite of the fact that none of this money was earmarked for teacher salaries or programs).
Because all of us who spearheaded the movement to get this referendum on the ballot care deeply about our children’s education, and the future of our School District, I am going to give the District a helpful hint on how to proceed: Come up with a plan that prioritizes and schedules the improvements in a responsible manner, figure out what absolutely needs to be done right now, and just do it. Dip into those excess reserves that you didn’t even know you had 6 months ago! Spend some of that money that you had budgeted for capital expenditures last year, but never used, or some of the 1.4 million surplus in the Operations and Maintenance fund. These monies were apparently left untouched in the hopes that the $27 million bond issue would pass. It didn’t pass, but the money is still there. Use it wisely. Or, reconsider Sue Quinn’s compromise that was suggested at the March 10 board meeting, to issue $6 million in bonds that would not require expensive refunding fees and would keep the District below the debt ceiling. The sky isn’t falling, and there are other options out there.
Check out the Daily Herald Article here:
Daily Herald
Palatine Patch article here:
Palatine Patch
TribLocal here: Triblocal
Posted by maryvanek 
