D15 School Board Candidate Frank Annerino Talks About Respecting All D15 Taxpayers

I want to make sure that our community knows I am committed to fiscal responsibility, and so are the four other candidates I am running with. Our name is Engage D15 for a reason. On our website we state that, "The children, families and residents of District 15 deserve a Board of Education that puts their interests first." When we say this, we mean all District residents and taxpayers. Estimates put the number of taxpayers that do not have children currently in school at 70-80% of our voters. That being the case, the District 15 Board of Education must be respectful of those taxpayers by doing all they can to ensure we spend wisely and work to reduce the tax burden in the future whenever possible. Contrary to what one might think, the amount of money spent in a school district does not directly correlate with the level of education provided to children and families. Smart allocation of resources (including tax dollars) is imperative to reach the highest value of education possible.

In District 15, like any large organization, there are always opportunities for improvement. The budget needs to be evaluated from a zero-base line instead of just accepting the previous year’s expenditures as necessary and unquestioned-which is the current practice in place. The process for enacting cost savings would start with evaluating the large cost items first, and then moving down the list through the less expensive items. With each item, we can evaluate if any savings can be realized. Some tools for enacting savings would be: competitive bidding, contract negotiations, using economies of scale for purchasing, process optimization, resource pooling, and new technologies. Utilizing continuous improvement processes developed in the private sector, the school district’s operations could be optimized to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

One other thing I want to mention is that the district gains more revenue each year that there is an increase in the EAV (Equalized Assessed Value) due to new construction and new businesses. Instead of increasing the tax burden on citizens regardless of this increase in EAV, the Board of Education should be reducing the taxes on citizens by the amount of extra revenue generated by an increase in EAV.

The community currently pays high property taxes which have increased over the years at a pace quicker than inflation. Residents who are on a fixed income, or a tight budget, are being forced out of their homes by these high property taxes. Our community needs tax relief, and as soon as is possible.

I ask that you vote for Annerino, Smolka, Wang, Szczupaj, and Kain on April 4th to place residents on the BOE who will be solid and conscientious stewards of your tax dollars, as we continue to improve the education provided by District 15 for our children-because these types of efforts benefit all of us-those with and without children attending our schools.