Lemont Residents Weigh in on District 113A Referendum Options

The following letter was sent Monday morning to Lemont Patch, as well as District 113A Superintendent Tim Ricker, Board President Lisa Wright, VP Kevin Doherty, Secretary Andy Taylor, and Board Members Sue Murphy, Karen Siston, John Wood and Janet Hughes.

Dear Lemont-Bromberek Combined School District 113A Board of Education and Administration:

We are writing to you as a group of concerned citizens who request that the District 113A Board enact real reforms in conjunction with a referendum that has a realistic chance of passing, immediately begins restoring financial stability to the district and begins reinstating cut teaching positions and academic programs.

According to the board meeting's agenda posted on the district's website, the district staff and financial advisers are recommending a working cash bond. They are also recommending another limiting rate referendum in a future election. This plan will not do anything for our children in the remotely near future and requires an impractical two successful referendums to restore any cut teachers, services or programs. For many citizens, this plan and timeline is unacceptable because it does nothing to directly help the students in the near future. It also is a poor political strategy with a high probability of failure.

Board Members Wright, Wood, Doherty, Siston, Murphy and Taylor publicly stated at the Jan. 11 board meeting their support for a more desirable plan (limiting rate) that both fixes the financial problems and begins restoring cut teachers and programs as soon as practical. We understand that you volunteer your time to serve on the board and at times it is a thankless job, especially with the challenges the district faces. We appreciate your position in support of a plan that both fixes the financial problems and starts to repair the damaging cuts to our children's education. We want you to remain committed to your public pledge even if it is against the recommendations of the staff. We appreciate the recent positive changes that have been made by the board and understand that the problems cannot be solved overnight. We are not looking to blame anybody for the situation we are in. We simply want action and solutions that help our children and schools in the upcoming school year.

Like citizens throughout the district, we are disappointed in the failure of the board to work together to solve the serious financial problems and for some board members' refusal to offer real solutions to the problems. Now we must live with the cut programs, large class sizes and face the real threat of a state government takeover of the district. We want solutions now, not a plan that may fix the problem down the road.

As you are well aware, if the state government takes control of the school district away from the local taxpayers we will effectively hand control of our schools to Springfield politicians and bureaucrats who bankrupted the state. We will give the state control of our schools and unlimited power to raise our taxes without a vote by the people. This will devastate the quality of our schools and kids' education and seriously damage our community's image and property values. This is an unacceptable opinion.

We request that the board place a referendum on the ballot that has a realistic chance of passing and earns support from parents and non-parents alike. If enacted, the revenue from the referendum needs to begin immediately fixing the financial crisis, restore financial stability to the district, begin reinstating teachers and restoring cut academic, special education and other academic programs and services for the students. Any plan that does not immediately address both the financial problems and the cut teachers and academic programs will be a tough sell and is not likely to find support from the community.

We understand and appreciate the efforts the board has made oer the past three ears to make changes and institute fiscally responsible policies. But, the reality is that the citizens of the district want more change before they will support a referendum.

We ask the board to formally enact the following reforms regarding the use of any new dollars generated from a successful referendum:

• Enact a formal policy that limits the use of any new revenue from the referendum to only rebuilding fund balances, to bring back teachers and other academic staff and restore cut academic, special education programs and other academic services for students.
• Enact a formal policy that prohibits the use of new money from the referendum from being used for administration costs, salaries for administrative staff or other non-educational related expenses.
• Place the new money from the referendum into a special account that can only be used for rebuilding fund balances and restoring cut teaching staff and academic programs.
• Require an independent yearly audit of the referendum revenue to ensure it has been used only for rebuilding the working cash fund and restoring cut teaching staff and academic programs.

We respectfully ask all current school board members to publicly pledge to support these reforms before the board meeting Jan. 18. We know these policies cannot be enacted at the Jan. 18 board meeting, but we want these reforms enacted before the April 5 election.

We are willing to work to enact a referendum plan that gets our schools the resources it needs, but only for a plan that brings immediate financial relief to the district, immediately directs money to bringing teachers back into the classrooms and other classroom-related purposes and is accompanies by policies that ensure the money is only used to fix the financial mess and educate our children.

By enacting these reforms in conjunction, the board has an opportunity to rebuild trust and confidence with the citizens, gain active support for a referendum and add a strong selling point to the plan. Support of these reforms will send a clear message to the citizens that the new board is serious about using the money only to fix the financial problems and directing the new money to educating our children, which will increase the chance of a successful referendum.

We would be glad to discuss our suggestions in more detail. Please contact us if you have any questions. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Dave Fako (708-705-6791, dfako@fakoassociates.com), Dan and Michelle Brannigan, Lou and Kathy Campos, Scott and Mary Pollard, Mike and Jen Egan, Steve and Cindy Schuit, Bill Douglass, Al and Suzanne Smiles, Dean and Melanie Cantone, Dave and Laura Henze, Andrea Mantia, Joe and Tina Re, Dave and Julie Maher, Matt and Darlene Brady, Jack and Anessa Mikolajczak, Chris and Niki Salomon, Mike and Deanna Adell, Michelle Tauer, Mike and Michelle Dunbar