Very Interesting - As Arte Johnson said in Laugh In ! Looks like circling the wagons! Not sure CUSD 200 needs to keep up with the Jones - just look at Naperville City with their openness of having $6,000,000 surplus - yet where is the CUSD 200 transparency of their $14,000,000 grant ? Perhaps for this resident the key issue is the engineering critera of upgrading Jefferson on the basis of some contractor's vision of superior education starts with tear down and new - sounds like old Hubble again ? Federal American's Disability Act for re-making facilities for pre-schools include reasonable changes - NOT teardown and rebuild the other 90% of the structures. Yes let taxpayers decide where to spend their monies:
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9805.html
Basic requirements of the ADA…
Child care homes and centers must make reasonable modifications to their policies and practices to integrate children with disabilities. Centers cannot exclude children with disabilities from their programs. Reasonable modifications mean changes that can be carried out without much difficulty or expense. This is individual to each program depending upon nature of the modification, cost and resources of the program. Examples include removing physical barriers, staff training, providing adaptive equipment. Auxiliary aids and services include a range of devices or services that help people communicate.

I wonder how these candidates feel about saving taxpayers money by using the bricks that made up a useless archway to the entrance to Franklin Middle School on this new Jefferson project.

When was the Franklin Arch built?

I would like to know about the money that was given to the school board, $14million give or take. Give detail to the home owners what is plan for the money? I feel strong about Jefferson, but the don't need to save money on the side. Look at Naperville, Illinois? we need transparency in our area.

The district's FAQ says:
Q: Did the District receive Capital Development Funding from the State of Illinois?
A: Yes, the District did receive $14.4 million from the Capital Development Board in Spring 2012. The grant was applied for in the 2003 referendum for District 200 schools. Multiple school renovations in the 90s were partially funded by cash reserves, depleting the needed cushion for end-of-year cash flow and "rainy day" contingencies, such as delayed state payments. In 2012, the Board passed a policy requiring a fund balance of 25%-40% on hand. Prior to the receipt of the capital development money, the District fund balance was below that threshold. When the money was received, the Board of Education spent $2.8 million of funds to pay off a lease which upgraded District technology infrastructure and resulted in a cost avoidance of $133,922.36 in interest. The remaining $11.6 million of the funds reimbursed District reserves to bring them to a current level of 27%.

The press release for the grant is
http://www.cusd200.org/235310927153615187/lib/235310927153615187/_files/CDB_021612.pdf

For details on my position see: http://janshaw200.com/?page_id=79

My property tax has gone up nearly $2000 in six years as a Wheaton resident. It's a lot of "just a small $50 a year..." repeated over and over. Agree on the need for transparency. Look how Hubble was botched...cusd said they'd get $20M for the old property. That was a joke on us. Our schools don't even rank on the top 100 in the state!

One way to improve transparency on property tax bills would be to list the amount of school district taxes that are the result of referendums. The property tax increase from referendums should be listed separately with the expiration date when our taxes will go done. When referendums are being marketed we are told they will only increase a tax bill X amount if your house is valued at some price that never matches my homes value but why not print what the approved referendums are actually costing us? Dupage County has to calculate this number in order to send out our tax bills so why not print it on the property tax bill so we know the impact the referendums are having?

Dan - on last year's property tax bills, the total rate for District 200 was 4.3812, of which .5467 was for debt service (County Clerk has these numbers). So of the $5457.78 I paid in property taxes to D200, $681.04 - about 1/8 - was used just to pay debt. Last year they paid off $5.6 million in principal, and $9.1 million in interest, leaving $194.6 million in principal owed. Much of this is from referenda, but over $50 million is from "working cash bonds" issued without a referendum. Between now and 2025, D200 already owes debt payments totaling $275.5 million and will have to collect property taxes in that amount to pay debt service. If the referendum passes that number would increase to close to $300 million. Numbers are from D200 audited financials, which you can review on their web site.