The Wilmette League of Women Voters — in a rare departure from its non-partisan stance on most issues — is supporting the tax rate increase referendum floated by School District 39.
After members researched both the pros and cons of the issue, a group of about 25 met recently at member Susan Morrison’s home and unanimously voted to support the measure.
The referendum will appear on the April 5 ballot and asks voters to approve a tax rate increase that would allow the district to close a projected $6.4 million gap over the next years.
If residents of the elementary school district approve the referendum, it would mean an increase of $58.80 for each $1,000 of taxes paid. For a resident with a $12,000 tax bill — the average in Wilmette, according to Village Finance Director Bob Amoruso — that would equate to a $705.60 hike. Future tax levies would be derived from the new, elevated level.
The district projects a $5.5 million deficit next year, District 39 Supt. Raymond Lechner has said. The board recently approved a list of cuts and fee increases to lower that number to $3.7 million — everything from staff reductions to charging for materials related to standardized tests.
If the referendum fails, the district said it must lay off 80 certified teachers over the next two years, which would result in increased class sizes district-wide — in some cases to 33 students per classroom.
Lechner called it “a recipe for disaster, but there really is no room to tweak our resources any further.”
Next school year, reductions would be made to music, art, physical education, programs for advanced students, technology instruction and professional development.
The following school year, 2012-13, would see program eliminations, officials have said. Reading instruction for kindergarten through fourth graders would be axed, along with instrumental music and foreign languages for all grades, in addition to deeper cuts to the schools’ libraries, advanced programs and technology instruction, officials have said.
Taking a position on a local issue is not common for the League, said Georgia Gebhardt, vice president of the Wilmette chapter.
Now that is has, the organization will help campaign on behalf of the issue, she said.
“I think our main thrust will be to simply get to as many of the Wilmette voters as possible to educate them as to the budgetary problems of the school,” Gebhardt said. “Before we could come to consensus, we had to delve deeply into and examine the budget and what will happen if there referendum doesn’t pass. I think it’s pretty compelling evidence, but of course we understand in the economic climate that we have right now people may be reluctant. But if they see the evidence it think it’s really something you can’t dismiss.”
Morrison said the bad economy was the main reason people have argued against the referendum, but she has also heard people question whether the school district is “crying wolf” in its projected cuts and program eliminations if the measure fails.
“There was some feeling that some people have the perception that … there’s really money there, and all the bad things that they’re saying are going to happen if the referendum doesn’t pass won’t happen,” Morrison said.
Though the opposing viewpoint was presented in the group’s discussion Tuesday evening, the group voted unanimously to support the referendum, she said.
Two League of Women Voters members are District 39 school board members — Karen Donnan and Cindy Levine — and also took part in the meeting, Morrison added.
“We had a very good discussion,” she said. “We had a lot of people who had kids go through the district, people whose children were in the district in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s who had some perspective. It’s really good to have a perspective on what’s gone on over the years in the district.”
