Future funding of Sterling schools at stake
STERLING - In the last few months, the Sterling School District has been concerned about four R's, instead of three.
Reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic and referendum.
When voters go to the polls Tuesday, Sterling School District residents will vote on a third referendum in four years.
A successful referendum will bring in an additional $721,000 by the end of next school year and an additional $1.3 million each subsequent school year. The district is asking for a 50-cent increase per $100 of equalized assessed property value.
An owner of a $90,000 house, with a $30,000 assessed value, would pay an additional $150 a year in property taxes.
Referendums in February and April of 2003 - each asking for a 59-cent increase per $100 - were resoundingly defeated. Those failures led to $4.7 million in budget cuts.
In a survey of 409 registered voters last summer sponsored by the school district, 60 percent said they would support a 35-cent to 50-cent increase.
Whether the referendum passes or not, the district faces about a $1.1 million deficit and is poised to make $300,000 in cuts for the 2007-08 school year. If it fails, though, the district is prepared to use its reserve to balance the 2007-08 budget.
It also will need to make an additional $700,000 to $800,000 in budget cuts for the 2008-09 school year.
In the past four years, the district has cut 47 teaching positions, leading to larger class sizes, and middle school sports, reduced its music programs, cut a guidance counselor at the high school, eliminated school paid field trips, decided not to buy textbooks outside of the Illinois Textbook Loan Program, reduced the district's participation in the Whiteside Area Career Center, spends $90,000 less on administrators' salaries and cut each building's budget by 50 percent.
A successful referendum will keep programs in the district at their current level.
Any program required for graduation, by the state or federal government, or programs needed to help meet the requirements of the "No Child Left Behind" Act will be safe from the chopping block.
Programs that could be eliminated are high school sports, nurses, foreign language classes, participation in the Whiteside Area Career Center, school counselors, art and music.
Several groups in the community support the referendum, saying the money will help keep a quality school district in the area and help keep and attract businesses and professionals to the area.
The referendum didn't make it onto the ballot without some resistance.
Only five of the seven board members voted for it. Former board member Ann Chatten voted against it in January, saying people could not afford the tax hike, citing prices in gas and the end of the electric rate freeze. At a special board meeting a week later, again Chatten said she could not support the referendum. She resigned from the board the next day.
Board member Frank Rausa also voted against placing the referendum on the ballot, but has been working to get it passed ever since.
The district has been preparing for the budget deficit for more than a year. The first step was starting a citizens' advisory committee. The district wanted public input on how it should handle the potential budget crisis. There were members of the committee who believed the district should look into freezing teacher and administrator salaries.
After a summer of lackluster attendance at meetings and open houses, the committee ultimately did recommend a referendum for a 30-cent increase, but only eight of the 14 supported a referendum.
The committee's other recommendations included a freeze on teacher and administrator salaries, looking for a cheaper replacement for Superintindent Wil Booker when he retires at the end of the 2008 school year, asking for donations from alumni, the sale of Wallace Educational Center or possibly taking out a loan.
A salary freeze, however, would save the district about $325,000, a fraction of the amount needed to balance the district's budget. For two years, administrators had their salaries frozen, but they received raises this year because the district lost administrators.
The district already has a lower average salary than many school districts in the area and a lower base salary.
