Big Hollow: LTE
- on 05.31.07
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There is another poignant letter to the editor today in the Daily Herald about the situation in Big Hollow.
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Many questions on Dist. 38 decisions My family and I live in Big Hollow Elementary School District 38, where the school board recently announced it will make dramatic cuts in the educational program for the upcoming school year. The cuts include eliminating lunch and recess for every elementary school student in the district, and eliminating physical education, art, music, and computer courses for all K-5 students. I am eager to know what options have been considered long before the situation came to this. I cannot help but think that the cuts are punitive — the taxpayers didn’t approve our referendums, we’ll show them! Where did the district get the money for the two brand new schools for the campus on Fish Lake Road? Didn’t the board anticipate the current financial situation a few short years ago? Can you build an addition to your home and say, “I’ll find the money to pay all of my bills later … somewhere?†The May 25 paper reiterated the cuts. Did anyone notice how the music program has been eliminated for the children but the music teacher will still be employed? How can this be? Do you mean to tell me that out of 1,450 students the district can not get enough parent volunteers to monitor the student lunches or recess? No, let’s just cut lunch and recess. It is amazing to me that the district is sitting on prime real estate where the old school was located at the corner of Routes 12 and 134, and yet they’ve been looking at the taxpayers for additional funding. Once the property is sold will the taxpayers get a refund? I am angered that the school board president refused to reveal the asking price for this prime real estate. Why not? Taxpayers hear about how much it costs to provide an education to our students. Why can’t we be told about significant future cash inflows? The answer may be that most of us could do the math and see that, once the sale is complete, the sale may well repay past loans and provide for a nice financial safety net in the future. Taxpayers, don’t be strong-armed into approving future referendums. For a 10-minute ride in either direction of the Big Hollow school campus, in Round Lake or in Ingleside, you can get a faith-based education where administrators believe, among other things, that at the very least, it is important to feed your child during a 6-hour school day and give them an opportunity for some physical activity. I’m not a professional administrator or an educator, just a parent who wears those same hats for my family, but is that asking too much? Donna Harbeck |
Some of these questions are easy to answer. School finance is overly complex to make it hard for most citizens to understand without some explanation. That is the case here with the new schools. The money to build schools are seperate from the money to be used for education. So the schools will be paid for over time via the bond levies and thus do not affect the money used for the classrooms which come from the education fund.
The district likes to talk about how their tax rate has eroded like they are receiving less money each year. The fact is they get more money each year because they can increase their levy by CPI or 5% whichever is lower. You can see this increase in the following table (original article):
| School Year | Total Revenue |
ADA | Revenue Per Pupil |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990/91 | $1.851 Million | 340 | $5,441 |
| 2004/05 | $9.506 Million | 1,000 | $9,585 |
| Percent Increase |
414% | 194% | 76% |
* Source: Lake County Regional Office of Education — Annual Financial Data Report
I have emailed the Big Hollow Superintendent a list of questions, some my own and some from the letters to the editor. I will post them when he responds.
[...] Big Hollow: LTE [...]
[...] Big Hollow: LTE [...]