Say No to Spending half a BILLION dollars

I’m opposed to the proposed $198 million by D112 because it costs entirely too much, and isn’t the right plan. The District had to go to the State Legislature to ask for permission to issue bonds for longer than normal, ostensibly so they could make the taxpayers feel as if they were shouldering less of a burden, paying off the bonds over 30 years.

For an entire generation, we’re going to be paying more, and from what I’ve read, this plan isn’t going to fix the problems that got us to this point. Similar in nature to High School District 113, District 112 hasn’t dedicated enough money to maintenance of the buildings. They should have consolidated the District shortly after it merged with the old Districts 107, 108, and 111. They should have sought methods to operate more effectively and efficiently, but they didn’t. As early as D112’s first meeting in 1992, they were borrowing money (in that case from D113) to fund “interim expenses” such as a membership in the Illinois Association of School Boards, rather than waiting until they had the monies available (see the story here: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-11-10/news/9204120029_1_high-sch...).

Since then, there have been many Boards comprised of members who have come and gone. But apparently none of them had the gumption to consolidate the buildings as they should have. Many years ago, I served on a D112 Citizens Finance Advisory Committee, to help brainstorm ideas about how to save money. Some of our ideas, such as becoming more cognizant and frugal with utility usage bore fruit, but even back then I told the Administration: “You have too many buildings. Ultimately you’re going to have to close some, it’s going to be a holy war in this town, and you’d be better off doing it sooner rather than later.” I still hold that belief.

But despite the desire to turn off lights in areas that aren’t being used, and turn down the heat when no one is in the building, a giant problem exists. Not enough money is being dedicated to the on-going maintenance of the buildings, and not enough money is being set aside every year in a sinking fund to pay for future replacements of systems or even buildings without coming to the taxpayer for a “Referendum”. The Boards seem to have seen fit to continue lavishing high salaries and benefits on Administrators and Teachers over the years, while the buildings and ultimately the taxpayers suffer.

Part of the current plan shoehorns a single middle school into a remote corner of Highland Park without the transportation infrastructure or connectivity to handle it properly. That’ll likely require that the City and School District spend more money for widening roads, adding traffic lights and crossing guards, and so on. The residents of the neighborhoods will be treated to upwards of 2,000 additional vehicles a day, twice a day, at least 5 days a week. If some special event happens on the weekends, that’s more traffic. It’s simply a ridiculous burden for the neighborhood to bear.

Other parts of the plan call for tearing down buildings and building new ones with things such as air conditioning (which is an unnecessary luxury in my view). The thing to keep in mind is that all the various systems of these buildings have a limited lifespan. Some, such as roofs, last for 20 years. This means that by the time you have to replace the roofs on all of these buildings, you’ll still have another 10 years of payments on the bonds that built the buildings. If past history has taught us anything about how money is set aside for maintenance on the buildings, it’s likely that the District will come to the taxpayers with hat-in-hand asking for yet another Referendum to fund that….
We don’t know what the interest rate will be on the bonds when they’re sold, and how the bonds will be sold (all at once, or in chunks), but for purposes of discussion, if we assume a 4% interest rate on $198,000,000 we’re going to end up paying a total of about $435,600,000 over 30 years. Almost half-a-billion dollars, and that amount isn’t going to get the District on the path to fiscal solvency because they still haven’t figured out how to say “NO” to the Administrators and Teachers.

But I know how to say “NO” to the District, and it’s at the voting booth at the next election. I urge everyone to vote against the D112 Referendum. We can do better.