Palos 118 Board of Education Votes to Add Referendum to March Ballot

At its December 19 meeting, the Palos School District 118 board of education unanimously voted on a resolution to add a referendum question to the March 19, 2024 ballot.

Voters will be asked to approve a shift of $4.35 million in funds currently being collected for the District’s debt service fund to its operating fund in order to address growing budget shortfalls.

Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Anthony Scarsella, said that the school district is not asking for more money from taxpayers and that voting “yes” for the referendum will not increase or decrease property taxes. The proposed increase in the operating tax rate will be offset by a corresponding decrease in the debt service tax rate. The district will be debt free in 2024.

“By going to voters in March, we saw an opportunity to address our growing budget shortfalls without creating an additional financial burden for our residents,” he said, noting that voters last approved a change in the operating rate for the schools over 60 years ago.

Dr. Scarsella explained that the District has always prided itself on being a low spending, high achieving District, pointing to Palos 118 students reaching the 97th percentile in reading and 93rd percentile in math in the most recent state assessments. All three of the District’s schools have received accolades in recent years with both Palos East Elementary and Palos South Middle School being named Exemplary Schools by the State of Illinois and Palos West Elementary being named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2022. The District spends approximately $1,000 less per pupil than the state average to achieve those results with only 6 school districts in Illinois spending less per pupil and achieving higher results in reading last year.

Scarsella said that that growing demands on the budget from unfunded state and federal mandates has been an increasing challenge and the district has been spending down cash reserves since 2017 in order to maintain services for students.

“However, we are reaching a point where that approach is no longer feasible,” he said.

“The calvary is not coming to help with these unfunded mandates,” he said noting that the district receives very little from state and federal funding sources. Despite the state’s recent increases in investment to K-12 education, the school district only received an additional $34,000 this past year.

“That $34,000 in additional state funding is nowhere near adequate to cover the growing unfunded portion of state and federal mandates,” he said, noting that “The unfunded portion of our two largest mandates has grown from approximately $2.4 million in 2012 to $6 million in 2023.”

If approved, the measure will move $4.35 million from the district’s debt service fund to its operating fund with about $2 million going toward annual upkeep of its three school buildings, another $2 million to eliminate operating deficits and avoid cuts, and another $350,000 earmarked for implementation of full day Kindergarten starting in the 2024-25 school year—3 years before a recent mandate from the state requires all Illinois school districts to provide full day kindergarten starting in 2027.

“School districts don’t often get opportunities like this to address financial challenges without increasing or decreasing the tax burden on local homeowners,” said Palos 118 School Board President Pam Paris.

“I hope the community takes time to learn about what we are proposing and to ask questions, so they are informed before going to the polls on March 19,” she said.

The District will host a virtual community forum on January 11, and in-person forums on February 6 and February 8. More information and details about the referendum can be found on its website www.palos118.org/referendum.