The school board for Indian Prairie School District 204 has taken a step toward scheduling a referendum measure that would seek money for several needs.
For months, board members have discussed scheduling a referendum item in 2005 or 2006. They have raised the possibility while considering a growing space crunch at the middle schools and at Neuqua Valley High School.
On Monday, the board asked administrators to draft an initiative for a citizens committee that would study key issues, including whether a referendum proposal is needed. In 2001, voters approved a tax increase for the education fund and authorized an $88 million school-building program.
As they did in the 2001 effort, board members expressed support for having two people from each school appointed to the committee. Supt. Howard Crouse said two administrators would be chosen to work with a 60-member panel.
Board members said they would like to have a citizens committee begin work in October. The board would have to make a decision by January to meet filing deadlines for the April 2005 election.
Crouse said the district needs to address several issues, including maintenance at schools and how to pay for technology upgrades. The board also has discussed building a seventh middle school or adding onto the three middle schools with the most students. Both options are estimated to cost about $30 million.
Crouse said the only way to deal with all the issues is through a referendum question on a tax increase.
Board member Mark Metzger said a citizens committee needs to decide whether district officials should schedule a referendum question.
The board discussed the referendum item possibility after receiving a report, which it commissioned in the spring, about growth trends. Officials with the Northern Illinois University Center for Government Studies said the district’s enrollment could peak at 38,300 in 2019.
Last year, the district had 26,400 students in 29 schools. When school starts Thursday, 1,200 more students are expected to arrive, officials said.
The district, which covers 44 square miles, could have 32,256 students by fall 2008, said Michael T. Peddle, a member of the NIU center’s team. Most of the homes planned for Aurora, Naperville and Bolingbrook should be built by 2008, he said.
