Referendum set for Crete-Monee 201-U school district voters
Voters in Crete-Monee School District 201-U, along with selecting school board members, will weigh in on any restructuring plans district officials might be contemplating.
The advisory referendum question on the April 2 ballot stems from a controversial restructuring proposal that would have closed schools in Park Forest and University Park, although a final decision on moving ahead with the closures has not been made.
The initiative also would have the district expanding or building new learning centers in Crete and Monee.
District residents argued that such a large and costly plan should be put to voters, and the question asks whether the school board should “be required to prove through voter referendum that any fundamental restructuring of the school district is the best plan for children and families, including any plan which would close schools within our neighborhood?”
The petition effort started in August, with a handful of parents collecting signatures that would have been presented to school board members. The initiative grew, however, with the idea of placing a question on the April ballot, according to Billy Morgan, a 2009 Crete-Monee graduate who was involved in the effort.
“The number of petition passers swelled,” with them needing to get signatures totaling 8 percent of the voters in the district who cast ballots in the November gubernatorial election, he said. Ultimately, nearly 1,200 signatures were collected and presented to the board in late December, with the question being approved for the ballot last month.
“The people should have the right to have their voice heard on this issue,” Morgan said. “This (getting the question on the ballot) is a story of people banding together.”
Through yard signs and comments at board meetings, many district residents protested the planned closing of the Coretta Scott King Magnet School in University Park and Talala Elementary in Park Forest.
The magnet school serves about 290 students in kindergarten through fifth grade from all four communities in District 201-U who are selected each year by lottery. Talala has 320 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
One element of what was simply titled “The Plan,” rolled out last summer, is demolishing the district’s unused Sixth Grade Center in Crete, which formerly served as the district’s high school, and building a new center for prekindergarten through second grade. Another component would add classrooms at Crete-Monee Middle School in University Park, and Monee Elementary would be expanded to become a 3rd- through 5th-grade learning center.
Along with CSK and Talala, the facilities restructuring plan proposed closing two elementary schools in Crete, with the four schools scheduled to close following the 2019-2020 school year.
District officials maintained that closing and demolishing the two older schools and building new facilities would save money in the long run, as 201-U is projecting needed life-safety work at its schools totaling $10 million, as well as another $16 million in preventive maintenance and building enhancements.
At Coretta Scott King, the estimate for life-safety, preventive maintenance and building enhancements is $4.7 million, while the figure for Talala is estimated to be $1.6 million, according to the district.
Any restructuring would mean the district issuing new debt to pay for it, but the district says the new bonds would be structured in a way as not to require approval from district voters through a referendum question.
Currently, the district earmarks about $12 million a year for principal and interest on outstanding debt, but that is scheduled to drop to about $3 million after 2027, which would lower how much taxpayers annually send to the district for debt service.
The district maintains that the issuance of new debt, and restructuring of current debt, wouldn’t increase the bond and interest portion of the property tax bill. But it will essentially extend what taxpayers now pay for several more years beyond 2027, with a drop in the debt service share of the tax bill not coming until 2041, for taxes paid to the district in 2042, district figures show.
Depending on where they live in the district, the debt service portion of a property owner’s current annual tax bill ranges from between about $400 to nearly $1,000, according to the district.
Against the backdrop of possible school closings, the composition of the 201-U board will be changing, with two current board members, Jennifer Gasbarro and Michael Turay, not seeking re-election in April.
In District 1, now represented by Gasbarro, who is also board president, Monee residents Pat Nash and William Sawallisch Jr. are vying for the seat, according to the Will County clerk’s office.
In District 5, now represented by Turay, Jamie Healy and Sandra Walters are competing to replace him.
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