Letter to the editor
2009 Tax Levy Increase Excessive
Barrington , hold on to your hats! Despite the turmoil in our economy Barrington CUSD220 School Board Trustees decided to ask for a 15% increase in the tax levy. Yes, that’s 15%. The School Board has stated they know they will not get that amount of increase because of the CPI and Tax Caps. The School Board always employs this technique in order to capture the maximum amount of dollars.
For the year ending June 2008, the District received $10 Million more in revenues than the year before and expended $15 Million more than the year before. According to the School Board Trustees that is called “fiscal responsibility.”
Now here is the feather in the hat. Barrington CUSD220 will soon (if they are not already) be involved in teacher contract negotiations for the period beginning 9/2009. The last teachers’ contract was negotiated during a good economy, full of perks and substantial increases and not necessarily the best contract for taxpayers. We MUST watch the School Board to make sure they do not negotiate a contract that is unsustainable. Many school districts are cutting expenditures at this time because of the current economy. Everyone should be aware of this situation and let your voice be heard.
Carol Schubert
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2 comments:
What is discouraging about the tax levy is that the Board seemed to "sneak" it through at late in the year when many of us citizens were busy with holiday activities. I never did see the levy notice in the Daily Herald.
The time has come to put in some reform on the way the local K-12public education system is funded.
Maybe a baseline/foundation is established at the state level taking into consideration local costs. Local PTO's would then raise discretionary funds to be used for the benefit of the students - funded based on income.
Another option is to move towards a tuition based model, similar to our community and state colleges. But that would mean that the administrators would actually have to work to manage revenues and expenses (a change that's hard to fathom). Centralized services would be handled by the district offices (another assumption that adminstrators would actually have to perform some work).
In any case, these are just a couple of thoughts, one that has potential and the other adding some competition to the mix.
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