Proposed $99.5 million bond referendum won’t increase District 86 tax rate. Here’s why.

Registered voters in Joliet Public Schools District 86′s boundaries should receive a survey from the district early next week.

District 86 wants to borrow $99.5 million through a bond issue to tear down Gompers and Hufford junior high schools and rebuild new ones on the same sites.

The funds also would be used to add four classrooms and a multipurpose room at Jefferson Elementary School and to free up money for improvements on the other facilities, Rouse said.

“The survey will give us information on whether the voters are willing to help us move forward,” Therese Rouse, District 86 superintendent, said.

Because District 86 has debt that’s expiring, the proposed financing wouldn’t increase the current tax rate, Rouse said.

“We’re trying to keep it as a cost-neutral piece so that we’re not increasing things for our taxpayers,” Rouse said.

District 86′s school board will decide at its Jan 11 meeting whether to place a bond referendum on the April 4, 2023, ballot. The agenda will be posted on the district’s website Jan. 9.

Rouse said the ballot question must be by done by Jan. 20 based on the law for the April 4 ballot.

District 86 plans to add information on its website about the proposed bond referendum by early next week at the latest, Rouse said.

The information will include the questions people are most frequently asking, a tax calculator and the slides from the PowerPoint presentations given Monday and Tuesday’s community meetings at Gompers Junior High and Hufford Junior High schools respectively, Rouse said.

The website will also include a brochure about proposed improvements to all 21 District 86 schools that was recently mailed to all registered voters in District 86 boundaries. The brochure is both English and Spanish, which Rouse said is “very explanatory and covers the topic well,” Rouse said.

The brochure also was emailed to students’ primary and secondary contacts, district spokesperson Sandy Zalewski said Monday.

John Armstrong, director of technology and information services, said Monday the brochure was emailed to about 27,000 people.

A banner will be placed at the top of the District 86 website inviting people to “click here” for information.

People may submit questions now by clicking the “let’s talk” feature on the top right of the District 86 website.

“They can send questions at any time,” Rouse said.

If the bond referendum is approved, District 86 would post spending from a voter-approved referendum and project updates on its website and host community meetings to update the progress and answer questions, according to the brochure.

Rouse said the school board has discussed topics relating to bond measures and facility upgrades ever since she came to District 86 in 2016 and that facilities are reviewed on a continual basis.

“We’ve been talking about this for quite a while in open sessions – never in closed sessions,” Rouse said.

Nevertheless, once the ballot question is answered in January, the community will still have three months to ask questions, Rouse said.

Rouse said District 86 has been discussing the possibility of a bond referendum at public board meetings for months.

“So we didn’t just all of a sudden pull this out from behind the car,” Rouse said. “”This has been a topic of conversation publicly for some time.”

For information, visit joliet86.org.