Big Hollow Wants Your Money
- on 12.03.07
- Fund The Child, General
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Sorry for the light blogging. I have been on vacation and have now returned. I will be catching up over the coming weeks and will start with the Big Hollow School District.
The Big Hollow School District 38 has made it official, they are putting another referendum on the ballot. This time for a working cash bond. As I wrote about back in Spetember, a working cash bond only masks the larger issue of overspending by the district by allowing them to move working cash funds into other funds masking the true spending habits. The district has a spending problem that will not be fixed by more money. More money only continues to hide this fact from the public and will gradually make the problem even worse for the district.
When reading the News-Sun article it stood out that nowhere did the reporters questions anyone about district spending habits. In addition they posted this time line:
|
REVENUE STRUGGLE Big Hollow School District’s last successful tax campaign was in 1984. April 2007: Voters reject a push to increase the operations tax rate by $1.35, despite a projected $31 million deficit. Just 33 percent of voters approve with 1,520 votes cast. November 2006: Bid for a $1.35 rate increase denied. Request fails 79 to 21 percent with 2,710 votes cast. June 2005: School Board Vice President Jan Carsella makes plea to Round Lake Village Board to increase impact fees for developer Ryland Homes. November 2004: Voters support a $29 million bond issue for two new schools. November 2002: Voters reject a proposed 49-cent tax increase by a margin of 22 percent, with 1,341 voters casting ‘no’ votes. March 2002: Request for 74-cent tax rate increase denied by a vote tally of 1,008 to 486. |
This section was entitled “REVENUE STRUGGLE” indicating total belief that the district has a revenue problem and not a spending problem. This again is a reason why many people don’t believe journalist are being as fair and balanced as they should be. Second, there is no mention that the PTELL law did not come into place until 1990 and how it allows schools to continue to get funding increases every year. In fact, Big Hollow has had increases in revenue of 414% since 1990 while the student population increased on 194%.
| School Year | Total Revenue |
ADA | Revenue Per Pupil |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990/91 | $1.851 Million | 340 | $5,441 |
| 2006/07 | $11.963 Million | 1,378 | $8,681 |
| Percent Increase |
546% | 305% | 59.5% |
* Source: Lake County Regional Office of Education — Annual Financial Data Report
* Illinois State Board of Education Report Card
As you can see the revenue has increases by a total of over $10 Million dollars. Per student revenue has increased by over 59% and still the school board and district administration say this is not enough. What is the amount of money they would be satisfied with. My guess after looking at their spending habits is that even the working cash bond is only temporary and they will be back for more in just a few short years.
Just take a look at your last tax bill. Where does the majority of that tax money already go? It goes to the schools of course and yet they cannot spend your money fast enough and keep coming back for more.
For the residents of Big Hollow, you only have to look at Grayslake District 46 to see what happens when you elect a responsible school board. We defeated the 4th atemp at a referendum here back in 2005. The administration before that had made the same cuts your district has. Since that time, almost every cut has been restored without a referendum. Also, the board has returned bond money to the taxpayers that was received in an unethical manner. I have no doubts though that D46 is not perfect and if we lose an election, the schools will once again be at our doors begging for money. The system here in Illinois is broken and is stacked against the taxpayer. We can make small strides and hold back the wave for a few years. It just takes work and resolve to overcome the personal attacks and rules put in place to defeat us. Stand strong residents of Big Hollow and fight the overspending bureaucrats who use your children as pawns against you.
Interesting point. Have you attended any of the board’s meetings and going over their spending?
I would have helped your input on this subject.
There have been numerous meetings with the board and other organized groups of parents for the last months to come up with options to avoid the referendum and it seemed that that was the only option.
Thank you.
Feel free to pass along any financial documents you have and I will post them for evryone to review. I am sure there will be many items that found to help control costs.
For BigH:
This site has no need to attend meetings or participate in direct dialogue…it can single-handedly save the world just by reviewing the financials with no 1st hand involvement.
It’s intentions are not the best interest of the district, but rather, to rable-rouse.
I have tried contacting board members and the administration and none of them have responded. I will gladly post any documentation you can provide me for Everyone to review. Finding solutions and fixing the spending problems is a job we can all participate in. One of the major obstacles to this is the school district’s who do not freely provide all information. They control the flow of information so they release on what they want the public to see. It takes great effort and expense to dig deep enough to get all the data necessary to truly hold them accountable for their uncontrolled spending habits.