Dear Neighbors,
Student population at BOTH Central and South is going down
South is severely underutilized
Central is NOT overcrowded
Taxpayers want the high school boundaries adjusted to remove the need for spending on new classroom space
Please vote NO for the D86 Referendum. After the "NO" vote comes in, C4CH will again put forth what we believe is a reasonable spending recommendation together with reform measures that will protect property values.
Student Population Trend Per Study
South losing up to 200 students
Central losing up to 175 students
Note: one classroom is needed for each 25 students so the need for additional classrooms in the future is less and less
Current Space Per Student
South 310 sq.ft/student
Central 170 sq.ft./student
Seat Utilization Rate of School
South 59%
Central 77%
Classroom Utilization of School
South 70%
Central 88%.
(ref. D86 classroom utilization survey - executive summary Jan 2018)
It seems obvious that building more classroom space at any campus is wasteful given the downward trend in attendance and excess capacity at both campuses. The low seat utilization shows that admin and unions have reduced class size to maintain staffing levels.
A phone survey conducted by D86 showed that 80% of the non-parents directed the Board to change school boundaries to settle the attendance imbalance. When asking parents of students, 63% still agreed. Changing boundaries to avoid massive spending is common sense for a public school district. The Board can also just slightly increase average class size from 23 to 26 at Central and create significant funds to pay for improvements.
Further, the demographic study and enrollment prediction is for South to continue to have less students, 200 less than now. Also, Central is predicted to have about 175 less students.
Why Teacher's Union Loves the $166M Referendum
C4CH pointed out that the Unions like this massive referendum and the Unions want $29.5 million to be diverted away from annual operation and maintenance spending and placed in a referendum tax increase.
C4CH recently exposed the $1.4M classrooms for $850/sq.ft. as another example of the wasteful spending.
At $650/sq.ft the 23,000 sq.ft area seems excessive in price and scope; plus it is only done at Central. Here are other startling numbers from the referendum detail.
$48.4 million on athletic facilities
-South pool can be upgraded for $2M instead of $12M
$24 million on administrative, counselor and special education offices
-$15M for Guidance, Counseling & Special Education - overpriced
$29.5 million on operation and maintenance improvement
-Diverts funds from operations allowing $29.5M for Union & Admin wage
& benefits increases
$11 million on life safety improvements
-No Referendum is required for this work
$39.5 million on renovation of common space
-Overpriced and excessive
$12.2 million on auditorium improvements
-Only minor spending - will not make kids smarter
Note EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS are only 15.5% of the referendum in the pie chart below.
VOTE NO!!
Note: 2017 - a $76M referendum failed in April of 2017, Voters said no 3:1
Overspending and high taxes hurts property values and does not make our kids any smarter. Vote No!
Another unaffiliated group is running a campaign against the referendum - District 86 Can Do Better. Visit their site.
We respect education and your hard-earned money. If you would like to help quietly or actively advocate for fiscal conservatism with C4CH, please send us an email at citizensforch@gmail.com
Respectfully,
Your Neighbors - C4CH
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