Public to Sue Jersey County Schools
- on 03.28.06
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A group of residents are suing the Jersey County schools over their school construction bonds (Hat tip: Students First). The referendum to build a new school was rejected in 1999 with a 71% No vote.
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“In our district, we went from needing $531,000 in repairs on our high school with one architect, to suddenly needing $13,988,000 in repairs on the same building,” wrote Ferguson on the group’s Web site in May 2005. A 1999 referendum to raise money for the new schools was flatly rejected, as 71 percent of voters chose to deny the district’s construction money request. Jersey County citizens are contending the School Board ignored their “no” vote and sold bonds anyway, thereby raising property taxes that have risen each year for the past few years. |
How were school officials able to issue bonds even though the referendum passed? Read on for the answer.
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Jersey Community School District Superintendent James Whiteside said he, fellow administrators and School Board members met with representatives of the Illinois State Board of Education in October 2003 to make sure the School Board’s methods fell in line with state regulations. Officials on the state level OK’d the way the district issued the bonds, Whiteside said. “The entire process was validated, so we moved on,” Whiteside said. “We were just searching for validation, because there were some questions raised.” “I feel that the prior board members and administrators had done everything according to the law,” Whiteside said. |
They took their cause to the State to get the approval to issue the bonds without voter approval. As you can see, here is another board finding a way to claim they are issuing bonds legally. Again, I say, just because it is legal, it does not make it right.
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“It’s really sickening when your elected officials put you into this kind of position,” Ferguson said. |
Mr. Ferguson, there are many of us across the State who agree with you. I would take the questions one step further. Why do so many elected school boards and district administration officials always look for new money grabbing schemes to take as much taxpayer money as they can? They then call it maximizing their revenue. I’m sorry, but they are legally stealing the taxpayers money. It is wrong. It is outrageous. It must be stopped.
If these elected school boards and district administration officials spent as much time working with and listening to the communities, they might earn their trust. They may even be able to pass referendums easily because of a total trust by the community. What a concept, trust the community with information and details instead of hiding information and legally stealing their money.
For more information, please refer to my orginal post from last May about this construction fiasco.
