Education Matters US

NOTE: If anyone is interested in helping me pass out flyers around the district please use the email link on the right top to contact me. Your help would be much appreciated.

I will keep a link to this article at the top of my blog until the Grayslake Elementary Board makes their final decision on this bond issue. Please print out this flyer and pass it on to your friends and neighbors. You may also want to subscribe to receive updates about this and other information regarding District 46 schools. You may subscribe at the top of this page.

Let’s walk through the information in a little more detail.

Source for above chart is the bond presentation made by Elizabeth Hennessey of William Blair & Company. This presentation was given to the school board at their March 20^th meeting. Specifically, they came from:

¹ Page 6
² Bond used total ( page 6 ) + premiums received and spent on bonds ( page 8 )
³ Bond authority approved by voters ( page 8 ) – total spent ^2
4 Page 6
⁵ Bond authority approved by voters ( page 8 ) + Bonds issued 11/03/05 ( page 8 )

This chart provides a better summary of the amounts explained above:

When you review the presentation you will see a claim that they are really only exceeded authority by just over 4 million dollars. This is because they are adding in the savings from previous bond authorities. The law states a bond authority cannot be used once bonds have been issued on new bond authority. This means that any bond authority before the 1999 should not be included in this discussion on how much money is available in the 1999 issue just made last year.

As you can see we are now being overtaxed. You might be asking yourself, isn’t this supporting my child’s education? The answer is no. This money can only be used to buy land since Prairieview and Frederick are built. The district would have to come to us and ask for more money to build a school. They already have a new school being built right now at Madrona Village that opens in 2007. The Kasarda Population Study, commissioned by the district, looked at student growth for the next 10 years. It concluded the following (page 29):

The total amount issued that exceeded voter approval was $6,899,865.60. This is the minimum amount that should be abated. If not, the board will be causing harm to the district by breaking the trust of the voters. I understand that when these bonds were issued, they did it without full knowledge of this information. I supported that decision at the time because of the time constraints involved and the fact that it was very clear in those meetings that this would be revisited in several months.

I believe there is one fundamental question that should be asked first and that is, “Should any amount of bonds issued that exceeded voter approval be abated?” I believe the answer to this question should be an emphatic YES. This is a trust issue with the voters in this district. An attempt to knowingly exceed what the voters approved is a violation of trust. The board knows the truth now. The details have been presented. There is a huge gap between what is legal in this situation and what is morally right.

The second question can then be asked, “Should any savings be returned to the voters and not spent?” The answer is obvious; yes, return the savings to the voters. Voters will be more apt to approve another building bond referendum knowing that you won’t exceed the amount they approve.

This community has been divided now for several years over money issues and the true need for a referendum. Abating the bonds starts to bridge that gap and builds trust again with the community. Please consider the community health and abate these bonds. I know it is not the expedient thing to do, but it is the right thing to do.

We all support education, but District 46 needs to understand they need to ask permission to tax us and not just take more money without our permission. If they want us to trust them, they need to show us they can be trusted now. They need to abate these bonds.

Please contact the school board members and ask them to abate the entire $8 million dollars. They should not take more money than the voters approved or spend saved money when the projects are completed. Just because it is legal to keep this money, it does not make it right. Ask them to do what is right and stop overtaxing us on projects that have been completed for several years.

For your review of past posts on this issue and the fall meeting notes follow the links below:

• William Blair Bond Presentation
• How Much Did Your Taxes Go Up?
• D46 Bond Summary
• Grayslake Taxpayers, Do You Want a Tax Break
• Grayslake 46 and 127 Over Debt Limit
• BOE Meeting Notes 10/17/05
• Bond Article in Daily Herald
• D46 BOE Meeting 10/4/2005
• CCSD 46 BOE Meeting 9/19/2005

You can contact each board member separately if you wish or email the entire board at once.