Spending on facility projects next year in Indian Prairie School District 204 could follow one of two paths — depending on whether voters approve a referendum seeking funding for safety and facility upgrades.
On one path — if voters say yes to the funding request on Nov. 5 — the district plans to spend $40 million next year on safety and security upgrades, infrastructure improvements, learning environment enhancements, renovations to create better parity among facilities, and updates to operate more efficiently.
But on the other path — if voters turn down the referendum — the district would scale back planned facilities spending to $10 million next year, officials told school board members during Monday’s meeting.
“That’s less than we’ve spent the past three summers, and obviously, the focus changes to only the highest-priority projects,” said Matt Shipley, chief school business official. “This $10 million would be the last of our capital projects fund. This would be the last summer where we have a specific, restricted source for capital projects. After this summer, any projects would have to come from operating dollars.”
District 204 needs ‘recurring funding’
Part of the funding issue is the state of Illinois does not offer schools a source of “recurring funding for capital needs,” Shipley said. That’s why districts often turn to referendums to ask voters for money to properly care for their facilities, he said.
The upcoming question asks whether District 204 can take on $420 million in new debt when expiring bonds used to build Metea Valley High School are fully paid at the end of 2026. If voters say yes, tax rates would remain the same instead of going down, and the district would have a new source of funding, bringing in roughly $25.5 million a year.
School board member Justin Karubas said the district wants the additional dollars so administrators can continue to have a dedicated funding source when flooring, roofing, lighting, playgrounds, parking lots or anything related to learning spaces needs care or repair.
He said without the new money, the district next year could afford only “the bare minimum to keep the system running.” Then, Karubas said, in future years, officials would have to dip into operating funds typically dedicated to costs such as employee salaries and benefits, food service and student transportation in order to make facility improvements.
Creating the ‘proper environment’
Superintendent Adrian Talley said upkeep matters when it comes to education.
“There’s so much research about how the proper environment in a school means children will learn,” Talley said. “If it’s a rundown building, the children won’t learn because they won’t take ownership and pride.”
District 204, Illinois’ fourth-largest school district serving nearly 26,000 students from parts of Aurora, Naperville, Bolingbrook and Plainfield, has a lot of buildings. Thirty-six of them in total, adding up to 4 million square feet of space on 655 acres of land. It’s a lot to manage, said John Robinson, director of building operations, and something always needs attention. New bond funding — if approved by voters — could provide the funds to give that attention.
Here’s a look at what District 204 could do for facilities next year with or without referendum funding.
With referendum funding
- Safety and security: The district hopes to spend $10 million on secure vestibules, exterior door replacement and access control improvements.
- Infrastructure: Officials plan to allocate $8.8 million for flooring and roofing replacements, plus asphalt and paving improvements.
- Learning environments: The district could replace four elementary playgrounds and make other classroom enhancements, spending a budgeted $1.7 million.
- Lack of parity: Waubonsie Valley High School as well as Gregory and Hill middle schools need “significant work” to be on par with newer buildings, officials say. The district could spend $5.5 million to begin design of “comprehensive improvements” for all three buildings and renovate the auditorium at Waubonsie.
- Operational inefficiencies: The district aims to begin LED lighting replacement across all facilities and to replace inefficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment for a total of $14.5 million.
Without referendum funding
- Safety and security: The district could spend $300,000 on only the highest-priority exterior door replacements and access control improvements.
- Infrastructure: Officials could allocate $3.5 million for flooring replacements and asphalt and paving improvements, but roofing replacements would be off the list.
- Learning environments: The district could replace three elementary playgrounds instead of four for $700,000.
- Lack of parity: The district isn’t planning to budget any money for this work without additional referendum funds.
- Operational inefficiencies: The district would delay LED lighting installation and would decrease spending on heating, ventilation and air conditioning improvements to $5.5 million.
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