BUILDING A BETTER DISTRICT

A Movement By Citizens  Demanding Transparency, Accountability, and Community Engagement for Central CUSD 301/Burlington in the State of Illinois.Building A Better District is a taxpayer-led movement and is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, the Illinois State or Kane County Regional Board of Education, nor any individual school district, or administration/Board of Education. 

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Watch Our Video Presentations

Watch our FB Live on "What Does 3% Look Like?" to see how a 3% growth rate impacts our capacity numbers with and without a new high school.


Watch our FB LIVE to review the district's 2022 Focus Group presentation & see why a 2400+ student high school is not the right plan.


This is not about taxes.  This is about TRUST.  

In order to have trust, there needs to be transparency.  Transparency means open meetings, regular steering committee updates and posted minutes, ongoing communication and engagement with the community.  None of this process should have been done behind closed doors.  It should not have excluded the input of the community (164 people is not "overwhelming consensus").

DOWNLOAD OUR GUIDE OF QUESTIONS FOR TOWN HALL MEETINGS

  • We agree we need to address slow growth. 
  • We agree we may need to build a purpose-built school in the near future.
  • We disagree that the district's methodology for calculating future enrollment is accurate. 
  • We disagree that a 450,000 SF high school for up to 3,000 students solves our elementary space issues. 
  • We disagree that the appropriate processes have been followed and analyses performed to arrive at these decisions.
  • We disagree that the current solution represents the wishes of the majority of our community. 
  • We disagree that the community should spend $195 million without the benefit of an independent enrollment forecast and facilities analysis that supports such an expenditure and this specific expansion plan.
  • We disagree that the community should approve $195 million without seeing a budget showing how the funds are earmarked for spending in order to have accountability for that spending.



We Need An Independent Enrollment Forecast Analysis

The taxpayers overwhelmingly approved a $22 million referendum in 2016 for improvements to Central High School that were supposed to last the community 20 years of growth.  The improvements were completed in 2018, but only lasted 5 years. When asked how this happened and how they miscalculated the space by 15 years, the district says they can't figure out how they arrived at those numbers.

  • We currently have 13 mobile units at our elementary schools.  How did this happen if the district is accurately projecting enrollment numbers? 
  • Prairie Knolls Middle School is in need of expansion (which it was designed to do).  Why didn't the district act on that data and plan for expansion this summer for fall 2024?
  • Central High School has a 20-classroom addition opening for Fall 2024 with room for 500 more students, bringing total capacity to 1900, making a new 3000-student high school unnecessary.  The auditorium, cafeteria, and parking needs expansion (and can be done for $54 million and result in a REDUCTION of taxes).  Why did we not also plan for this along with the 20-classroom expansion?

Our Board of Education has a fiduciary duty to be the check and balance against the district to protect taxpayer funds.  If the district can't produce the data used as the foundation for a $22 million ask in 2016, our community should not approve another referendum without an independent Enrollment Forecast & Facilities Analysis and a detailed plan on spending, including how long these improvements will really last our community. 

Better Options Exist For Our District - See Our Sample Plan For An Expanded CHS Campus

We believe there are better, less expensive options that will serve our community better in the coming years.  Building A Better District has put together an alternative option for the community to consider, if only to demonstrate that other alternatives DO exist for our district! 

Look at our alternative plan that meets our current needs and may REDUCE our taxes, not add to them to show our community we CAN find other solutions.

Vote NO in March so we can say YES to a NEW PLAN we build TOGETHER.



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THE HIGH POINTS

    • In 2016, a $22 million referendum was approved by the taxpayers; the district said the improvements would "complete" Central High School and last the community 20 years of growth.  Within 5 years of the completion of improvements (2018-2023) we were at capacity and the district cannot explain how this happened.
  • This same $195 million referendum was defeated by the taxpayers in April 2023, but immediately following that defeat, the district began spending millions of taxpayer dollars on architectural plans and engineering fees with a closed-door Steering Committee. No public meetings.  No posted minutes.  With 2 Board of Education members participating, but not 3, to avoid triggering the Open Meetings Act requiring public meetings.
  • The current referendum would build a new 417,000 SF high school with capacity for up to 2,400 students, a brand new field house and sports facilities.  
    • The taxpayers just funded a new field house and athletic fields at the current CHS, which were just completed in 2018 as part of the 2016 $22 million referendum that was supposed to add room for up to 20 years of growth.
  • New home construction has significantly slowed due to high interest rates, high home prices, and the effects of inflation bringing year-over-year total enrollment growth to just 1.5%.  
  • Kane County's 2023 EAV Assessment Report reflects a downturn in new home construction of 21.8% against the 2022 EAV.
  • Home sales in our district overall are down 22.8% against 2022 and down against pre-pandemic year sales.  
  • Current high school enrollment is 1,447 students. With the 20-classroom addition at CHS, capacity will increase to 1,900 students.  There is no need for a new high school.
  • The district's growth numbers have not been confirmed by independent outside analysis using a demography firm and shared with the taxpaying community validating the district's projected numbers and proposed solution. (See St. Charles/D303).
      • A detailed plan showing how the $195 million will be spent has not been provided to the community including the costs and timeline for:
        • building a new 450,000 sq ft high school, field house, athletic fields, and other instructional & meeting space
        • converting Prairie Knolls Middle School into a K-5 elementary school
        • converting Central Middle School into an early childhood center, and 
        • converting Central High School into a middle school 
        • costs to manage schools over capacity until the new school is built and the others modified (more mobile units?) assuming the referendum passes
      • Based on the district's numbers and plan, CMS will be operating at under 25% capacity and all other schools under 70% capacity for some time.  These numbers may mean higher carrying costs for under-utilized buildings which means even HIGHER taxes in the form of the district's annual operating budget.  
      • Cost efficiencies have not been calculated as it relates to these factors and the homeowners of this community are the majority revenue source from our district for the district.



      What Happened to 20 Years for $22 million in 2016?

      In 2016, the voters approved a $22 million referendum to complete Central High School and accommodate district growth for 20-25 years from completion (2018).  The district recently stated they do not know how they came up with the numbers for the 2016 referendum or why the improvements only provided for 5 years of growth--20% of the time they represented to the taxpaying community.   Read more...

      2022 Focus Group Presentation Analaysis

      In November 2022, the district made presentations to the community through a series of Focus Groups claiming a need to build a new, large high school with great urgency.  The basis of this need was a high rate of growth based on proposed new developments that have since stalled or significantly slowed in pace.   See our analysis of all 4 considerations when put through  data models based on the district's data. See Analysis..


      TAKE ACTION!

      The community should vote NO to the referendum and demand the Board of Education commission an independent Enrollment Forecast & Facilities Analysis to be completed and shared with the community.  A new round of engagement with the community should follow to create a Master Facilities Plan based on the reported findings. 

      If you agree that the district should perform the appropriate due diligence with an outside demography firm, let our Board of Education know!  You can find the e-mail addresses of all board members on the Central 301 website.  If you'd like to mail your letter, please address it to Central Unit School District 301, Attention: Board of Education,  PO Box 396, Burlington, IL 60109.

      About us

      We are a local group dedicated to cultivating an empowered and engaged community of parents and taxpayers to build an environment of transparency, accountability, and communication within Central Community Unified District 301 (D301), representing the unified voice of the people for a successful and sustainable future.

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      Building A Better District is a volunteer community group advocating for transparency, honesty, accountability, and community engagement from Central CUSD 301 in Burlington, IL.

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