Oak Park School bond coming back in November

June defeat not

a deterrent

Despite losing to the voters in the June primary, the Oak Park Unified School District has decided to bring a school bond measure back to the ballot this November.

Voters on June 6 approved Measure C6, a $17.5 million bond that will levy an annual tax of $24 per $100,000 of assessed property value. But Measure B6, a tax rate extension on an older bond, failed to garner the required two-thirds vote for approval. It would have raised $89 million and increased the rate that homeowners pay on their property taxes from $140 to $174 per $100,000 of assessed value.

If both bonds had been approved, a total of $106 million would have been raised for improvements in the school district. Combined with $9 million in state funds, the bonds would have been used to pay for the district's $115 million Facilities Master Plan, a seven-year project that would update all six campuses within the Oak Park district.

The money from Measure C6, the bond that passed, is earmarked for technology upgrades, but not all of it will be spent on immediate purchases. Purchases will be made in stages in order to keep technology up to date in future years.

The failure of Measure B6 has forced school officials to revisit the district's original Master Plan. A recent audit of the development plan produced a total of $20 million in possible reductions.

The reductions would probably include the elimination of a $5 million aquatic center at Oak Park High School and elimination of an $8 million Integrated Learning Center, school officials said.

Even with the cuts, the district is still left with $68 million in expenses in order to implement its revised plan.

Critics of the bond measures say Oak Park's declining population of school age children has made the need for three elementary schools obsolete, and that taxpayers should not be required to pay for additional upgrades.

School officials countered by saying it would be impossible to shut down Brookside Elementary School, the oldest school and the campus requiring the most renovations, since it is the only elementary school on the east side of Oak Park. School officials also argued that Red Oak Elementary could later be used to house continuation and independent schools.

"We prefer operating three smaller elementary schools rather than two larger ones," said Tony Knight, superintendent of schools.

"Research supports that student achievement is higher at small schools and students have a more positive experience," Knight said. "Additionally, we are not certain in terms of how fast and how much our enrollment will decline in the future."

The bond measure school officials plan to introduce in November will be another tax rate extension requiring approval of two-thirds of the voters. It would raise $66.2 million, about $20 million less than the failed Measure B6.

Instead of a rate hike, the measure will extend the total length of the tax. Rates will stay at the current level of $140.20 per $100,000 of assessed value annually, but will add another 20 years to the bond term.

The original was passed in 1978 to allow Oak Park residents to create a separate school district. It raised $40 million and received a 90 percent voter approval.

"We'll learn from the June election, we will focus and we will keep the message clear and straightforward," said Jim Kalember, school board president. "The need is there, the will is there and we must execute and deliver."

A revised project list for the Master Plan will be approved by the Oak Park Unified School Board in late August or early September and will include a final list of cost reductions.