Six of 10 residents of Downers Grove High School District 99 who participated in a recent survey favor a $50 million bond issue to increase classroom space to alleviate overcrowding and renovate aging facilities.
District 99 was stung in April last year when voters overwhelmingly defeated a $75 million bond issue to build a third high school in Woodridge and to renovate Downers Grove North and South High Schools. Now the district is floating a more modest plan for additions and renovations, but it wants to gauge community support for the proposal before deciding to schedule a referendum.
The school board has held community forums to discuss the plan and then commissioned a Salem, Ore., polling firm to survey residents. The Nelson Report, the research company, interviewed 382 registered voters in the district by telephone between June 19 and 24, and 23 percent have youngsters enrolled at Downers Grove North or South High Schools.
Of those surveyed, 60 percent support the $50 million bond issue and view overcrowding as the school district’s most pressing problem, while the next most serious issues are drugs and alcohol, and then gangs and violence.
“Voters want to protect their large investment in our schools and are willing to support a bond measure that assures our existing buildings are repaired, renovated and maintained,” said Bruce Beckman, board president.
Under the $50 million plan, the district would add 64 classrooms at a cost of $24 million; construct a fieldhouse at each school, $11 million; upgrade heating, ventilation and plumbing, $7 million; build new music rooms, $4 million; expand student cafeterias, $2 million; build new study centers for tutoring, $1 million; and build new science laboratories, $1 million.
Surveyed residents were asked to rate each as a high priority. The findings: mechanical improvements, 74 percent; study centers, 70 percent; science labs, 68 percent; new classrooms, 66 percent; larger cafeterias, 48 percent; new music rooms, 46 percent; and new fieldhouses, 41 percent.
After last year’s bond issue defeat, district officials analyzed why they lost, and the survey confirmed their conclusions. Residents in the poll who voted against the proposal said they did so because they opposed any property tax increase or thought the construction was not needed or the plan was too costly.
The scaled-down plan would boost property taxes for the owner of a $200,000 house by $72 a year, compared with $198 for the failed bond issue.
Residents also said they opposed last year’s measure because they did not like the Woodridge location for a new high school or because they opposed building a new school anywhere.
“Voters would prefer to repair, improve and maintain their existing facilities,” said Mark Nelson, of the survey firm. “Removing a new high school and its location from the proposed bond measure has had a positive impact on a swing contingent of registered voters.”
In the survey, 76 percent of respondents felt the two high schools are overcrowded. The two high schools have 32 portable classrooms because of crowded conditions.
“Knowledge that the 1998-99 school year will start with so many portable classrooms, that both high schools currently are over maximum capacity and that enrollment is expected to grow another 250 students in the next two years boosts voter support for this bond issue,” Nelson said.
Current enrollment is 2,178 at Downers Grove North and 3,074 at Downers Grove South. Building capacity is 1,600 at North and 2,400 at South.
Survey residents gave the school district a high performance rating of 68 percent (19 percent excellent and 49 percent pretty good), while 15 percent gave a negative rating (12 percent fair and 3 percent poor). The other 17 percent offered no rating.
