In December, District 128 board members approved a partnership with Creative Entourage, a consulting firm that specializes in community communications.
According to Mary Todoric, Director of Communications for D128, the purpose of the partnership is to engage the community in planning for the future.
“The Board approved a community engagement process to share information with the community regarding capital needs at our high schools, develop a long-range facility improvement plan for our District, and ultimately gauge the community’s support for a referendum,” Todoric said.
Assistant Superintendent of Finance Daniel Stanley explained what a referendum means to the community.
“A referendum is when you are asking the community permission; it’s something that appears on a ballot during an election…Most commonly, in schools, a referendum is usually about asking for more money, for people to be willing to pay more taxes for a particular purpose,” said Stanley.
To get a sense of potential community support for this possible tax raise, the district has partnered with Creative Entourage, a community engagement firm, to send out surveys to D128 taxpayers. The Board of Education approved this partnership at the December 18 meeting.
Stanley said the $91,500 being paid to Creative Entourage is from the district’s Contingency Budget, which is around $200,000 set aside in case of emergencies.
Todoric explained the district’s choice of Creative Entourage.
“District administrators interviewed four engagement firms and recommended Creative Entourage to the Board for approval. They are highly regarded and have an excellent record of working with schools throughout Illinois to engage with their communities,” Todoric said.
According to Todoric, this community engagement process will conclude by August 2024, and if the results show that the D128 community would be in favor of a referendum, the administration will put it on the ballots for the November election.
“The facilitation committee for the engagement process will begin meeting next month. The process will run through the spring. The Board will receive a report from that committee and, based on that report, will decide whether or not to proceed with a referendum. To be on the November ballot, the Board must decide by August,” Todoric said.
VHHS principal, Dr. Jon Guillaume, explained more about the steps that need to happen before any funds are accessible.
“If the firm comes back with, ‘Hey, we think you should do a referendum,’ and the school decides, ‘Alright, we’re going to put one on the ballot,’ and it passes, we still won’t have access to those funds until 2026,” Guillaume said.
According to Stanley, the referendum is necessary for D128 to continue the capital improvement projects due to insufficient funding. Having said this, the board is still determining the exact amount they need. Stanley estimated the referendum passing would result in approximately a $200-$300 increase in taxes per household for the community.