Central 301 District Special Meeting This Wednesday, May 1st @ 5:30 PM

The Board of Education for Central CUSD 301 in Burlington, Illinois, has scheduled a Special Meeting for Wednesday, May 1, 2024, at 6 PM. The purpose of this meeting is to receive a presentation from a demography firm on Enrollment Forecasts & Facilities Analyses. This presentation was arranged after a $195 million referendum for a proposed 415,000 SF high school for the district was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in the March 19th primary election. It was the second time such a referendum had been defeated in less than a year, with the first defeat occurring in the April 2023 election.

At the heart of the lack of consensus is the district's statements that it expects significant annual growth of 3% or greater for the next 15-18 years in spite of falling birth rates in Kane County and the significant and ongoing loss of population throughout the state of Illinois. Following the Board of Education's decision to place the $195 million referendum on the ballot for a second time, community residents formed a grassroots movement called Building A Better District. The group aggregated feedback from the community that showed the taxpayers want to see an independent enrollment forecast and facilities analysis conducted before any further referendums were presented to the community.

The community's frustration is rooted in a $22 million referendum they passed in 2016, which failed to provide adequate space for projected enrollment growth at the current Central High School for 20 years as promised by the district. Despite the improvements completed in 2018, the district was already convening Focus Groups by fall 2022 to discuss the lack of space at Central High School. The broader community's dissatisfaction with the failure of the 2016 referendum led to their refusal to approve a $195 million high school without an independent analysis of the district's enrollment and facilities needs.

D303 (St. Charles), D304 (Geneva), and D308 (Oswego) recently completed enrollment forecast & facilities analyses through independent demography firms to help them make critical decisions on space utilization and planning.

This meeting is open to the public. Residents of the D301 community are strongly encouraged to attend and hear the information related to these two critical tools in future district planning.