Historic Turnout As D301 Voters Say NO to $195 Million Referendum

Last Tuesday's election saw Central D301 Voters show up with a historic 35.55% turnout as they decided whether or not to approve a $195 million referendum for brand new high school in Burlington, Illinois. This same measure was on the ballot in April 2023, where it was defeated by a small margin of 258 votes, however, in 2024, an opposition effort mounted by local grassroots movement, "Building A Better District", helped widen that margin to a resounding "NO" by 1,516 votes in the March 19th election.

At issue was the recent $22 million investment in the 30-year-old Central High School that was supposed to provide room for up to 20 years of growth. That referendum passed in 2016 with improvements completed in 2018, however, only 4 years later in 2022, the district began convening Focus Groups advising the high school was out of space. A key sticking point for the community was the lack of an independent enrollment forecast & facilities analysis by an outside demography firm to show a 5-year picture of expected future enrollment figures and a review of all district buildings for best utilization. These studies were recently undertaken in St. Charles D303, Geneva D304, and Oswego D308 school districts.

The community now must start over with new possible solutions for the district's elementary space issues. If you live in the D301 district, BABD is asking the community to complete a survey at www.buildingabetterdistrict.org/survey by April 12, 2024.